
Class. 



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STesdjers' Professional 3Li6rarg 

Edited by NICHOLAS MURRAY BUTLER 



THE AMERICAN SECONDARY SCHOOL 



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THE 
AMERICAN SECONDARY SCHOOL 

AND 

SOME OF ITS PROBLEMS 



BY 



JULIUS SACHS, Ph.D. 

PROFESSOR OF SECONDARY EDUCATION IN TEACHERS 
COLLEGE, COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY 



THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 
1912 

Aii rights reserved 



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COPYRTGHT, I912, 

By the MACMILLAN COMPANY. 



Set up and electrotyped. Published June, 1912. 



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PREFACE 

There are educational questions involving so large 
an area of interest that they defy treatment at the hand 
of an individual ; a mere enumeration of the problems 
that attach themselves to our secondary schools would 
suffice to indicate the unwisdom of such an attempt. On 
individual questions and groups of questions, thought- 
ful men and women have concentrated their efforts ; 
to combine their contributions to the various phases of 
the subject under wise editorial control into a consistent 
whole, to create a thesaurus of sound opinion on what 
the secondary school has been, is, and should be, seems 
the only way of reaching an agreement on the rational 
conduct of our middle schools. The cooperative idea 
seems peculiarly appropriate to this need of our educa- 
tional scheme. 

As for the present treatise, its title speaks for itself. 
It has been realized by the author that it is wiser to 
concentrate attention upon some of the problems of the 
secondary school and indicate their significance rather 
fully, than to compass all, or even a majority, of the 
questions that attach themselves to our system of middle 
schools. He has subordinated all questions of method, 



VI PREFACE 

of curriculum, to what has appeared to him the deter- 
mining factor in a secondary school system, the fitness 
of the teacher for his task; the book has, in conse- 
quence, become an appeal to and for the teacher. It 
traverses many topics which other writers have found 
it necessary to elaborate into special treatises; the 
value of these he does not disparage, though he thinks 
their appeal might often with profit be presented more 
compactly. The American secondary teacher of to-day 
is constantly and very properly reminded in books, 
educational conferences and lectures, of the technique 
of his task; despite some objurgators of a science of 
teaching it may be said, once for all, that in almost all 
civilized countries of the world the necessity of the 
professional training of the teacher is recognized. But 
he cannot make bricks without straw, — his own intel- 
lectual grasp, his capacity in the subject-matter he 
handles, must be beyond question ; he must be pre- 
pared to grow, must feel the supreme obligation to 
grow, intellectually ; he must experience the glow of 
the artist, not rest content with the cleverness of the 
artisan. In accord with this dominating thought, there 
have been added to the body of this book, besides two 
excursuses, a series of outlines on The Teaching of sev- 
eral subject groups in the Secondary School Course; 
their object is to rouse the individual teacher to such 
study of his chosen field as will give him the widest 



PREFACE VU 

possible survey of the questions involved in the pres- 
entation of the subject. Here and there the wording 
of these outlines may reveal the personal convictions 
of the author, but it is the author's aim, with the 
aid of the bibliographical notes, to invite each teacher 
to a formulation of his individual opinion on any and 
every phase of the teaching issues. With his classes 
the author has used similar outlines for the group of 
mathematical and science subjects ; he has limited him- 
self, in the present instance, to the historico-Hnguistic 
group for definite reasons ; in one and all of them 
there still prevails the widest divergence in procedure, 
the significance of which each teacher must fully grasp, 
if he would be an adept, not a slave to tradition. 

To President Nicholas Murray Butler the author is 
deeply indebted for the first impulse that led to the 
inception of the present work. In its progress he has 
derived constant inspiration and guidance from the 
investigations of Sadler and Findlay in England, of 
Matthias, Fries, and Reinhardt in Germany, advocates, 
one and all, of an idealism in education which tran- 
scends the borders of nationalism and of local educa- 
tional problems. 

JULIUS SACHS. 

New York, 

June, 19 1 2. 



CONTENTS 
PART I 



FAGB 

The Teacher i 



PART II 

CHAPTER 

I. The Present Status of the Public High School 85 

II. The Private Secondary School . . . .154 

III. The Educational Policy of the Secondary School 192 

Excursus I. The Continuation School . . . 230 
Excursus II. The Function of the Educational Ex- 
pert 242 

Appendix: Outlines for the Teaching of Certain 

Subject Groups in the Secondary School Course 269 



EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION 

The American people will find it to their advantage 
to direct an increasing amount of attention to the sec- 
ondary school, its function and its problems. The task 
of the elementary school is of necessity defined with 
reasonable clearness and certainty. The task of the sec- 
ondary school, however, is much less fully understood. 
The experience of European countries will aid and guide 
us in many ways. A close study of the problems of men- 
tal growth and development, as these occur in connec- 
tion with boys and girls from twelve to eighteen years 
of age, will also do much. A study of the social and 
industrial opportunities and influences which are at work 
in present day society, both in Europe and in America, 
will do perhaps even more. 

The work of the secondary school is of a kind that 
necessitates differentiation and a choice between differ- 
ent programs of study and between different, sometimes 
competing, educational ends and aims. The secondary 
school must exist in sufficiently diverse forms and must 
be administered with sufficient elasticity of method to 
enable it to adapt itself to the needs of a complex 

social organism. 

xi 



xii editor's introduction 

In a democratic society the secondary school has 
one other and vitally important function to perform. 
It must train those who, by a process of natural selec- 
tion, are marked out for leadership in their several 
communities. It must so shape their minds and char- 
acters and so direct their energies that they will be 
able, in later life, to make wise use of the opportunities 
for leadership and direction that have come to them. 
The secondary school that overlooks this aspect of its 
problem is not a secondary school at all, but only a 
link in a chain. 

The rapid growth of secondary schools in the United 
States is evidence, if evidence were needed, that the 
secondary school problem is being attacked in this 
country with vigor. The danger lies in the fact that 
so many secondary schools are established and con- 
ducted in mere imitation of institutions elsewhere. Edu- 
cation by imitation is much less helpful than education 
for ideals. The wise policy for a community to pursue is 
to make itself familiar with the function and the prob- 
lems of the secondary school, and then to estabUsh for 
itself such type of secondary school, or so many sec- 
ondary schools of differing types, as will best meet the 
individual, social, and industrial needs of the children 
of its own population. 

NICHOLAS MURRAY BUTLER 
Columbia University, 

New York, May 15, 1912 



INTRODUCTION 

The American Secondary School of to-day is in a 
process of transformation; it is the outgrowth of a 
series of institutions, which, under the varying names 
of Middle or Secondary schools, in different cultural 
communities, represent systems of instruction that ante- 
date in their origin the elementary school, the college, 
and the university. From it have developed methods 
of securing the fundamentals of knowledge-acquisition 
(primary work) which open the possibilities of intellec- 
tual growth to all ; out of it have branched, as insight 
has increased, the countless phases of inquiry that con- 
stitute the burden of a higher education. 

The vigorous and unrestricted growth rootward and 
upward has constrained the parent stock within limi- 
tations that have made definition of the present pur- 
poses and functions of the Secondary School a matter 
of difficulty. The upper limits of the elementary school, 
and the lower ranges of the college studies, have poached 
upon the secondary school's preserves ; the attempt is 
here to be made to define more especially as far as 
the United States are concerned, its proper confines, 
and to set forth some of its problems and the available 
means of meeting them. 



XIV INTRODUCTION 

In this connection we shall freely draw upon the ex- 
periences of European schools. The tendency to ignore 
such experiences is an erroneous one; whatever has 
proved effective elsewhere is worthy of our serious 
thought; it is our duty and our privilege to adapt to 
our own conditions the processes that have approved 
themselves to expert educational opinion. Our educa- 
tion must be national, but need not be exclusive. 

There have been countless contributions, individual 
and collective, to the study of the problems of the 
Secondary School; now it was the scientific arrange- 
ment of programs of study, now the method and forms 
of instruction, again the adaptation of the courses pur- 
sued to the actual needs of life, that have given direc- 
tion to the doctrines advanced. The present author's 
aim, it may be stated at the outset, is to focus attention 
upon the necessity for America of distinctly superior 
attainments in our teachers. It is his belief that neither 
scientific classification of subject matter nor psycho- 
logical analysis of the adolescent mind and impulses 
can avail without accurate and ever-growing positive 
knowledge of the teacher. 

As he regards the situation, the day of the textbook 
as the paramount teacher has passed ; teachers who 
merely recapitulate or indifferently interpret the formu- 
lated statements of the textbook, who cannot contribute 
from a rich store of collateral information the individual 



INTRODUCTION XV 

note without which there can be no vital class interest, 
are useless in the scheme of a rational secondary school. 
The advocates of the textbook notwithstanding, our boys 
and girls, if they are to profit by attendance in the sec- 
ondary schools, must be guided by thoroughly trained, 
thoroughly informed instructors. And with the decline 
of the textbook as the sole bulwark of accurate knowl- 
edge, there must go hand in hand a complete revision 
of our recitation system, which in its prevailing form 
affords but the slightest stimulus to teacher and stu- 
dent. Our secondary school system falls short of ideal 
results, mainly because we lack a sufficient number of 
teachers competent to enlarge with the freedom of a 
generous attainment upon the topics it embraces. It is 
idle to seek elsewhere the causes of a declining interest 
in the secondary school courses ; weak teachers create 
weak courses. 

The example of the German and the Scandinavian 
countries, and more recently of France and England, 
points clearly to our needs. Abroad we find teachers 
richly informed in college and university courses that 
are designed to illuminate their school work, and in ad- 
dition they undergo theoretic and practical guidance in 
the art of imparting. The effectiveness of our second- 
ary schools will be determined by a recognition and 
acceptance of these two fundamental needs; we must 
insist on similar processes of preparation, though we 



XVI INTRODUCTION 

may depart because of our special problems from the 
detail in method pursued abroad. If at present much 
of our secondary work is pronounced lackadaisical, 
wanting in spirit and in incisiveness, it is primarily a 
question of the competent or incompetent teacher. 
This country can afford to possess fewer secondary 
schools ; it needs imperatively better-manned second- 
ary schools. It is an issue that should not be obscured ; 
our best teachers recognize the defect which is due to 
lack of opportunity in the college and the training 
school, and they zealously strive to remedy it; incom- 
petent and self-satisfied teachers must be confronted 
with the fact that the era of conventional performance 
is passing away. 

Our commonwealths too will learn to gauge the true 
value of capable teachers, and will sooner or later 
discover that the servant is worthy of his hire; it is 
an irreparable loss to a community to permit a com- 
petent teacher to depart because of a refused increase 
of salary ; it is not possible to measure in percent- 
ages the difference in value between genuine efficiency 
and commonplace routine attainment. Our schools 
require teachers who can teach, who are completely at 
home in the subject or subjects they are called upon 
to handle and who have mastered the art of presenta- 
tion ; the hearing of recitations can be but an incident 
in such a conception of the teacher's function. The 



INTRODUCTION XVll 

importance, then, of the teacher to the success of any 
secondary scheme of instruction should justify the pre- 
cedence given in this book to the chapter on the 
teacher. 

A word as to the general tone of this treatise, which 
to some may seem a picture gray in gray ; not to fore- 
stall or disarm opposing views, but in the interest of 
the cause that the author desires to advance. He is a 
firm believer in the value of outspoken criticism ; it is 
not in a spirit of petty faultfinding that he indicates 
the present shortcomings in our secondary schools. 
Self-complacency is the eternal foe of progress; it is 
not pessimistic to apply unhesitatingly the probe of ex- 
perience to our efforts. Let others, our visitors from 
abroad, commend what they find commendable in our 
schools ; we want to ascertain wherein we are deficient, 
and then endeavor to improve. There is something 
stimulating and wholesome in a state of mind that is 
never satisfied with present achievements ; in education, 
least of all, can any community afford to rest upon the 
laurels of its attainments; a virile disaffection prompts 
to further endeavor, to revision and reconstruction in 
effort. 

And finally we have no desire to make our schools an 
exact copy of any type of foreign school ; there are 
abundant reasons for adhering in our aims to ideals par- 
ticularly suited to our conditions. The courses of a 



XVlll INTRODUCTION 

German gymnasium, a French \yc6e, or an English 
public school, like Eton or Rugby, we would not dupli- 
cate, if we could, for our pupils ; they would not bear 
transplantation, they would be an exotic in our system. 
But it is the high order of efficiency in their teachers, 
rather than the nature of their curricula, that imparts 
distinction to them, and it is this quality in the teacher, 
professional ability and exactness in information, toward 
which our efforts must be directed. Granted that our 
aims are more modest than those that prevail abroad, 
they should at least be rigidly maintained and com- 
pletely realized. Consummate knowledge and skill in 
the teacher are imperatively the backbone of any and 
every system of secondary education. 



THE AMERICAN SECONDARY SCHOOL 



THE AMERICAN SECONDARY 
SCHOOL 

PART I 

The Teacher 

I. Preparation in subject matter. 

" An open-minded examination of the merits of foreign 
systems is the guarantee that secures us against stagna- 
tion^ against declined — De Tocqueville. 

On the teacher and his preparation depends primarily 
the success of the secondary school. It is no easy task 
to create a public opinion that will accept with all its 
consequences the consideration of the teacher's vocation 
as a profession, and that will be ready to look upon the 
teacher as a professional expert. He himself must 
challenge public opinion on this subject in two ways : 
by his present attitude, and by the steps he has taken 
to reach his present station ; i.e. by his view of the true 
nature of his professional work, and by his professional 
preparation. By these will he be judged, and he has 
no right to claim the emoluments or the social distinc- 



2 THE AMERICAN SECONDARY SCHOOL 

tions that come to a professional man, unless his atti- 
tude in both these respects is correct. 

The physician secures professional standing by evi- 
dence he furnishes of a prolonged course of study in 
which he acquires the scientific basis of his subject; to 
this he must add during years in the medical school and 
in hospital service practical clinical work, before health 
and life are intrusted to him. The same holds for the law- 
yer, engineer, architect; with this additional proviso, that 
in none of these callings would a man enjoy professional 
confidence unless it were felt that his calling were not 
adopted as a makeshift, but as a permanent life's work, 
with a clear perception of the fact that a rise through 
various stages to positions of responsibility will depend 
upon his own constant mental growth. The transi- 
tional work in teaching, of which this country affords 
so many familiar examples, whilst it may be good for 
the teacher, is, except in very rare cases, bad for pupil 
and school ; lack of perspective, absence of stimulus to 
secure a broader grasp, has harmed teaching as a pro- 
fession ; it has been assumed that any one can teach. 

Our conception of preparation is a curiously inade- 
quate one, and we may at once characterize as make- 
shifts some of the agencies upon which many second- 
ary schools draw for their teaching staff. Our normal 
schools are more or less adequate to the training of the 
elementary school teacher ; they do not suffice for the 



THE TEACHER 3 

future secondary school teacher. As informational ma- 
terial, high school subjects are desirable, even necessary, 
for the elementary teacher, but these normal schools 
cannot properly embrace in their curriculum the theory 
and practice in the teaching of high school subjects 
without weakening their effectiveness for the elemen- 
tary school work. Their instructors are in the fewest 
cases capable of handling the theory of the higher sub- 
jects with the necessary mastery, as the statistics of 
their own preparatory training show ; ^ in too many 
instances their high school instruction is apt to be a 
weak effort to reach the plane of an efficient high school 
course. 

Experiences in England to train elementary and sec- 
ondary teachers in the same training colleges have called 
forth the following comment : " I believe that training 
is affected to a small degree by the kind of educa- 
tional work students are going to undertake, but it 
is affected to a considerable degree by the kind of 
education which students have received ; it appears to 
me undesirable to train together a pupil teacher edu- 
cated in an elementary school with another student who 
has a degree obtained at Oxford or Cambridge. On the 

1 Meriam, J. L., Normal School Education (Columbia University Con- 
tributions to Education), Chap. VI. Thirty per cent of all normal school 
instructors have received no educational training in advance of the 
school in which they are now teaching. 



X 



4 ' THE AMERICAN SECONDARY SCHOOL 

other hand, I see no reason why two university graduates 
should not with advantage be trained together, although 
one intends teaching in a secondary school, the other 
in an elementary school." ^ 

The consciousness of this weakness, and of the meager 
mental outlook that normal school students usually 
bring to their course, suggested the plan of creating a 
special type of normal school for students of collegiate 
rank, intended to fit them directly for secondary work ; 
such a proposal was made in Massachusetts,^ but was 
defeated. It is in fact not feasible, and it would in- 
volve a wasteful duplication of effort.' 

The natural agency for the training of secondary 
teachers is the college which is to furnish the requisite 
knowledge of subject matter, and the training college 
which is to apply the general principles of pedagogy to 
the secondary school subjects. The demand that gradu- 
ation in good standing from a reputable college shall be 
the minimum attainment of the future secondary teacher 
is unfortunately not yet generally recognized ; certain it 
is that the intellectual outfit acquired during the second- 
ary school period cannot suffice for the future secondary 

1 Roberts, Education in the Nineteettth Century, Cambridge Exten- 
sion Lectures, 1900, p. 182. 

* F. Atkinson, Professional Preparation of Secondary Teachers in the 
United States, Breitkopf & Hartel, 1893. Atkinson prefers the name 
" Post-graduate Pedagogical School " ; cf. Eng. Spec. Reports, 7. 381. 

s Pritchett, Carnegie Foundation, 5th Annual Report, 76. 



THE TEACHER 5 

teacher. He would be likely to teach just what he was 
taught and as he was taught; this danger can be re- 
moved by the interposition of the larger mental experi- 
ence gained in a new period (the college years) of study 
and thought ; it enables the candidate to rise to some- 
thing Uke a critical estimate of his former teachers and 
their methods. 

An examination of the teaching body in the high 
schools of many states reveals a large percentage of 
teachers whose academic training has been insufficient. 
Unless the legislation of a state specifically demands 
of its high school teachers college graduation, a lower 
order of attainment is likely to be the rule. The lax- 
ity in a number of our older states in this respect is 
in striking contrast with the specific and insistent de- 
mand of states like California.^ What has been en- 
forced as a minimum standard in scholarship in several 
western states ought to be made by legislation the irre- 
ducible requirement everywhere. It could not be made 
retroactive, for it would eliminate a large percentage of 
our actual teaching force that has enjoyed either no 
college course or only a fragmentary one, but it should 
govern the appointment of new teachers, so that within 
a generation or less a uniformly higher scholastic stand- 
ard would be assured. 

1 Brown, J. F., The Training of Teachers for Secondary Schools, pp. 
210-214, Macmillan, 1911. 



6 THE AMERICAN SECONDARY SCHOOL 

But let it be said at once : the perfunctory completion 
of a college course does not qualify a young man or 
woman to teach high school subjects. Many of these 
young persons have not definitely had the teaching 
career in view, and the actual record of their college 
performance does not offer a very sound guarantee of 
definite scholastic attainment; in the case of the teacher, 
more than that of any other professional man, success 
depends largely on the soundness of preparation in fun- 
damentals; for it becomes his duty to lay the founda- 
tions for the intellectual growth of the next generation. 

The character of the future teacher's own training 
in the foundations of his subject or subjects it should 
be the business of the college to determine; if the 
terms of admission to college are not sufficiently ex- 
acting to insure accuracy in fundamental knowledge 
(and they are not, whether tested by entrance exami- 
nations or by admission under the accrediting system), 
then the college should not send such a candidate forth 
as teacher without the special training that makes 
for accuracy. A superstructure of advanced collegiate 
courses, reared on a basis that is imperfect or inade- 
quate, propagates superficiality, inaccuracy. There is 
no part of a college's work more important than the 
proper intellectual equipment of the future teacher ; ^ it 

1 Butler, N. M., Meaning of Education, p. 159. The colleges have, 
until very recently, done little to show that they are aware of what is 



THE TEACHER 7 

should be recognized as a distinctive feature of college 
work, and if its attainment involves the creation of 
special sections for intending teachers, that step should 
be undertaken in the interest of sound teaching. In co- 
educational institutions and in the women's colleges, 
from which a very large percentage of the teachers 
issue, such an arrangement is specially desirable. 

Even in Germany, where a rigorously organized sec- 
ondary school system insures a high degree of accuracy 
in the future teacher's fundamental training, provision 
to emphasize this accuracy is made in the university 
scheme by the institution of seminars for a resurvey of 
the school subjects in the light of the more advanced 
pursuit of the same subjects. Professor Baumann of 
Gottingen advocates under the general heading of 
Schulwissenschaften ^ a fuller consideration of this 
relationship, and urges the appointment for the teach- 
ing of these Schulwissenschaften of men who have 
risen to the rank of advanced academic scholars from 
a previous career as expert teachers in secondary 
schools. 

We need, says Baumann, a special group of university 
professors who combine with genuine scientific bent the 

being accomplished in the study of education. Consequently they have 
failed to contribute their proper proportion of duly qualified teachers. 

1 Baumann, lulius, Schulwissenschaften als besondere F'dcher auf Uni- 
versitdten. Leipzig, 1899. 



8 THE AMERICAN SECONDARY SCHOOL 

zeal to make their subjects available for teaching pur- 
poses in the schools ; the teaching point of view should 
be constantly kept in sight, so that parallel with the 
scientific pursuit of a subject there would be consid- 
ered the questions : what can be taught (in the second- 
ary school) ? how is it to be taught ? to what degree are 
modern theories to be introduced ? "Unquestionably," 
he continues, " unless counteracted, the tendency of col- 
lege and university studies leads away from the needs 
of the classroom." 

It is not yet generally recognized in our own col- 
lege circles that students may very appropriately be 
initiated into the advanced stages of scholarly insight 
and appreciation, in the same subject matter that in 
its more elementary forms constitutes the material of 
instruction in the secondary schools ; e.g. a classical 
author, read in the schools, like Vergil, may well 
form the topic of an advanced college course; in the 
broader outlook of such a college course the future 
teacher would find many a fruitful suggestion that 
would enrich his later presentation of the subject to his 
class.^ There is distinctly need, in the interest of th^ 
intending teacher, of brief didactic courses in which the 

1 In a summer course at Columbia, Professor McCrea interprets 
several books of Vergil to teachers {vide announcement) 

a. as they should be known by the teacher. 

b. as they should be known by the class. 



THE TEACHER 9 

classification and grouping of the mass of knowledge in 
a given subject becomes a vital feature; he should ac- 
quire broad, but correct, generalizations from college 
professors who have reached these conclusions after, 
and because of, careful specific detail work, and who 
present general statements with cautious reserve. 

The candidate teacher for the secondary schools must 
not be a narrow specialist, absorbed in one subject of 
the secondary school course, and indifferent and inex- 
perienced along every other line. From the undesira- 
ble extreme of earlier days, when a teacher with or 
without qualifications for the task was expected to teach 
almost every subject of the secondary curriculum, we 
have gone to the other extreme of the one-subject 
teacher, and the colleges have ardently advocated this 
tendency to speciaHzation. Aside from the fact that 
the one-topic teacher is an obstacle in the arrangement 
of the curriculum of all but large city schools, as he is 
either disquaUfied or reluctant to be assigned to any 
other subject, this tendency to specialization is harm- 
ful to every type of secondary school. The one-topic 
teacher appreciates only the significance of his own 
field; desirous of making it prominent in the school 
curriculum, he is apt to demand in its favor a sacrifice 
of other topics ; being himself limited in the range of 
his interests, he is not likely to apportion in a judicial 
spirit the emphasis that should be distributed among a 



lO THE AMERICAN SECONDARY SCHOOL 

number of subjects of the course.^ In fact the very 
intensity of the specialist operates against the primal 
function of the secondary school, an expansion of youth- 
ful interests, disclosure of various avenues of pursuit,- 
each with an interest of its own, each offering attrac- 
tions to one or the other student. 

As an integral part of a school organism, and as a 
contributor to the making of an all-round human being 
with a wholesome preliminary outlook into various pos- 
sibilities of human activity before a final choice is made, 
the specialist has little to offer. The interplay of in- 
tellectual interests should be unfolded to the growing 
minds of our young people ; even where a strong native 
bent manifests itself early, the influence of the school 
should be in the direction of a broadening of sympa- 
thies, rather than of a narrowing tendency.^ Necessary 
as specialization has become in the activities of life, and 
in the higher stages of professional activity, its limita- 

1 Sadler, English Special Reports, IX, 20 : " Under right conditions 
technical and professional studies are restrained by the humane influ- 
ences of general culture from undue or premature specialization, and 
from selfish preoccupation in their own immediate concerns." And of 
this undesirable tendency in the specialist Bascom says, Atlantic Monthly, 
June, 1903, p. 749 : " Not only does he not rise to the height of all knowl- 
edge, he does not rise to the height of his own knowledge." 

2 Woodhull, J. F., " Modern Trend of Physics and Chemistry Teach- 
ing," Educational Review, March, 1906, pp. 236-247. Canfield, James H., 
" Wanted : A Teacher," Educational Review, December, 1900, pp. 433- 
443. Sachs, J. " The Departmental Organization of Secondary Schools," 
Education, April, 1907, pp. 484-496. 



THE TEACHER II 

tions do not serve the best interests of the pupil in the 
secondary school, and the specialist teacher in the sec- 
ondary school, if completely engrossed in his specialty, 
is not the most helpful adviser. Goethe's "Wer nur 
eine Sprache kennt, kennt keine " is particularly appli- 
cable to the one-subject teacher of the secondary school ; 
a teacher is likely to be the more effective in one field, if 
he surveys his subject from several distinctive points of 
view. 

The secondary teacher in Germany and France, what- 
ever his chosen line of study may be, must show mas- 
tery for teaching purposes in at least two additional 
subjects ; one of the three must always be the vernacu- 
lar; and the striking results attained in the clear and 
cogent oral and written utterances of their secondary 
pupils are due to this demand made on the teachers. 
The plea urged in favor of the one-topic point of view, 
that no man can excel in more than one field of activity, 
falls to the ground before the evidence furnished by 
German and French teachers. It is a wholesome offset 
to undue concentration of interest upon one subject to 
be compelled to adjust oneself to several topics, and to 
the pupils concerned it is of striking advantage to have 
the same teacher correlate their experiences gained in 
various subjects ; it makes the teacher more human in 
the eyes of his pupils, if they recognize that his mind 
is open to various interests. 



12 THE AMERICAN SECONDARY SCHOOL 

It will be natural that the several subjects which 
each teacher chooses to handle will group themselves 
along certain accepted lines of kindred interests ; the 
historico-linguistic ; group, the mathematico-scientific 
group, these are the usual combinations ; but it will 
happen at times that a linguist is a first-class mathe- 
matician or a keen student of geographical research, 
that a teacher of mathematics has a fine sense of lit- 
erary form ; and such combinations are particularly 
valuable in the school life. 

The ability to teach, the vernacular effectively would 
seem for us the first step in the movement for wider 
teaching interest on the part of every secondary teacher ; 
the cooperation of every teacher in the interest of good 
English, a cooperation which is now often sought in vain, 
would be made possible. School committees and super- 
vising officers ought to make capacity in this direction a 
" sine qua non " ; the training in English, even if the 
candidate is not in every instance called upon to teach 
the English classes, would raise the standard of the 
secondary school ; English should not be^ merely one of 
the subjects of instruction, but the core of the work. 
This would involve a wholesome change, too, in the 
manner of presenting the subject of English ; it should 
be less technical, more distinctly cultural. 

A familiarity with at least three subjects of the curric- 
ulum, that would enable the teacher to put his abilities 



THE TEACHER I3 

in these subjects at the disposal of the school, ought to 
lead to a teacher's desire to vary his teaching duties ; it 
should be a distinct relief to pass from the demands of 
an exact science, mathematics or physics, for instance, to 
the opportunities of stimulating the aesthetic or moral 
sense which a lesson in literature or in history affords. 

For the teacher who hopes to advance to a supervisory 
or administrative position, a principalship or a superin- 
tendency, breadth of this kind seems almost a necessity ; 
to judge of good performance, of sound teaching meth- 
ods, to estimate at their true worth the methods of ap- 
proach to various subjects, one must have taught himself 
in a number of them. Absolute unfamiliarity with the 
greater number of subjects in the curriculum accounts 
for the helplessness of principals and superintendents 
that tolerates the continuance of antiquated, useless 
methods, that hesitates to accept methods adopted 
elsewhere because of lack of acquaintance with the 
pedagogic tenets on which they are founded. The 
absolute dependence of principals on the suggestions 
of modern language teachers whose work they can only 
superficially judge is a case in point. Knowledge of 
subject matter, detailed comprehensive knowledge far 
beyond the actual necessities of the secondary class- 
room, a knowledge that feeds on the desire for more 
extended information, should be one of the prerequi- 
sites of the secondary teacher. 



14 THE AMERICAN SECONDARY SCHOOL 

Our present situation is tersely described in the author- 
itative criticism of Dean Russell ; most of our teachers 
are " teachers with nothing to teach." ^ We are still far 
from demanding, as we should, evidence of a satisfac- 
torily completed college course in those subjects that the 
candidate intends to teach. A demand, apparently so 
obvious, is ignored to a surprising extent ; teachers who 
have never carried on mathematical or classical studies 
in college are deemed worthy of teaching them, though 
they have neglected them since their own secondary 
school days. And yet far more should be called for ; 
growth in knowledge, as the teacher {)ursues his call- 
ing, not accidental growth, but deliberate, distinctly 
planned growth. 

The assumption that the teacher brings from his 
college experience the sum total of desirable infor- 
mation, and need henceforth devote himself only to 
the acquisition of the teaching technique, is fatal to 
his success. Every teacher of merit will admit that 
his initial intellectual equipment at the beginning of 
his teaching career was but meager; it is in the pro- 
cess of teaching that we ascertain promptly the frag- 
mentary and incomplete character of our knowledge, 
and find the strongest provocation to supplement and 
strengthen our inadequate attainment. At no stage 
of his career should the teacher cease to be a learner, 

1 English Special Reports, X, 471-472. 



THE TEACHER 1 5 

both in the subjects he teaches and in the wider gen- 
eral interests ; the teacher who is intent only upon 
the narrow confines of his teaching subjects does not 
add to his stature as a teacher ; he is in danger of 
degenerating into a clever craftsman. Routine, mas- 
tery in presentation and in class management, he must 
acquire, but they should be dominated by his personal 
ambition to grow intellectually, or else the technician 
will supersede the genuine teacher. This conviction of 
the necessity for constant intellectual growth is not yet 
generally held by our teachers, and it is one of the 
strongest indications that the professional attitude is 
not as widely appreciated as is desirable; teachers' 
reading courses, active participation in the work of 
learned societies and of professional gatherings, but, 
above all, individual study in some chosen field, or else 
close inquiry into the educational movements that are 
developing at home and abroad, these are the means 
of furthering professional development. 

The so-called teachers' meeting, which is usually 
limited to the consideration of the routine necessities of 
the school, might become under the direction of an 
inspiring principal or superintendent a valuable stim- 
ulus to growth ; the consideration of far-reaching 
school problems in a compact resume, or a survey of 
new educational or scientific tendencies by one or the 
other member of the teaching staff, would be a distinct 



l6 THE AMERICAN SECONDARY SCHOOL 

gain as well to the one assigned to the task of leading 
the discussion, as to the whole teaching force ; it pre- 
supposes a professional spirit in the conduct of such 
meetings. It is in well-conducted teachers' meetings of 
this type that supervisory officers can foster the profes- 
sional spirit of their junior colleagues. The judgment 
and appreciation of his fellow workers is quite as pre- 
cious to the teacher as success in the immediate exercise 
of his educational talent. 

In the wide range of subjects which appeal to 
the modern man of culture it is impossible for any 
single one to keep completely in touch with all that 
is new and valuable ; and yet, if we are of inquir- 
ing minds, we should like to hear of the best that 
is being offered in other departments than our own. 
Instead of prolonged faculty meetings, let us cultivate 
the art of reducing the discussions in them to modest 
compass, and devote the time thus gained to resumes 
by one or several of the teachers, say of the points 
definitely established in some line of physical inquiry, 
and the points still in debate, or a critical review of some 
new group of writers, or a discussion of a burning issue 
of the day in the light of economic or political theory. 
Where could a man or woman find so conveniently a 
body of appreciative hearers, not especially trained 
perhaps in the subject that appeals to him or her, and 
yet persons on an intellectual plane that enables them 



THE TEACHER 1 7 

to follow a clear presentation ? And how wonderfully 
would such an occasion accentuate the need of clear- 
ness, how valuable would prove to a thoughtful person 
the kind of criticism, the kind of inquiry, that he would 
evoke ! 

Professional recognition, we are convinced, can only 
be secured by such means, not by agitation after the 
pattern of the trades-union. Let teachers consider 
that neither lawyers nor physicians combine to force 
their claims upon an unwilling public ; their professional 
standards prohibit such undignified procedure, and our 
teachers do not win respect professionally by proclaim- 
ing themselves ^^ hired'' for their positions. The more 
distinct the evidence of a professional spirit, the more 
probable is the recognition of teaching as a profession, 
with those practical rewards that come to the efficient 
professional man or woman. 

The need of professional training for the secondary 
teacher is coming to be recognized.^ Without theoretic 
insight, even those specially endowed in intellect and 
temperament will attain success only after many fail- 
ures ; those of average endowment may drift through 
many wearisome attempts into a fairly successful mode of 
handling their classes, but the uncertainty of the 

1 For college instructors as well as for secondary teachers ; cf. the 
strong arraignment of college faculties by R. I. Schuyler, Educational 
Review, pp. 191 ff. Sept., 1911. 



1 8 THE AMERICAN SECONDARY SCHOOL 

amateurish spirit makes them easy victims to every 
new notion, provided it be presented with sufficient 
assurance and persuasiveness. Training schools and 
teachers' colleges are beginning to offer opportunities 
for such training, but as yet the demand for such train- 
ing prior to appointment is not generally enforced ; the 
obvious superiority of those who have combined good 
academic work with sound professional training, and the 
enlightened demand for such a combination in some of 
our Western states, ought to convince those who hesi- 
tate to express themselves in favor of the increased 
requirement.^ 

The average secondary teacher has been in the 
habit of entering upon his work directly from his own 
student life, without a realization of the teaching prob- 
lems involved, of his duties and of his prerogatives ; 
if he has finally become proficient, it has been at the 
cost of serious errors, injurious for the time being to 
himself, and often permanently harmful to his charges. 
In view of the fund of enlightened experience that older 
teachers have gradually accumulated, it is inexcusable 
to have our present candidate teachers repeat the errors 
of former days ; the body of young teachers should be 

1 The Report of the Committee of Seventeen of the N. E. A. on 
" The Professional Preparation of High School Teachers," 1907, sets 
forth excellent individual opinions of its contributing members, but is 
distinctly disappointing in its general conclusions; cf. Educational 
Review, pp. 311 ff. Oct., 1908. 



THE TEACHER 1 9 

spared the distress of duplicating the blunders of their 
predecessors. It should be the privilege of capable 
teachers to shape by guidance and practical suggestion 
the early steps of young candidates ; where attendance 
in a professional school is impracticable, there should 
be designated in every school system one or several 
teachers to control and direct these young people in their 
initial teaching experiences. The experiment of coopera- 
tion between a teachers' college and a public school sys- 
tem, such as has been in operation in Providence, R. I.,^ 
is worthy of close study and of imitation, and the half 
salary assigned to such candidates in the first year is a 
slight sacrifice for the practical advantages it secures. 

The spirit of professional interest in the coming 
generation of teachers must become more marked ; it 
is as much the duty of a competent teacher to contrib- 
ute to the training of young teachers as to work success- 
fully with his immediate pupils ; it is this that the critic 
teacher in the normal school aims to accomplish for the 
elementary teacher, and it should likewise be under- 
taken for our secondary teachers, to whom it would 
prove fully as helpful. 

The German gymnasial seminary has within the last 
twenty years effected along this line of professional 

1 The arrangement of practice teaching that is offered to intending 
teachers at Brown University is described in Luckey, Professional 
Training of Teachers, p. 65. 



20 THE AMERICAN SECONDARY SCHOOL 

training great results. All candidate teachers are as- 
signed for expert guidance in small groups of about 
eight members to the director and selected teachers of a 
secondary school; the honor of such an assignment is 
highly prized.^ In each seminary the errors in teach- 
ing, due to inexperience and a defective sense of pro- 
portion, are carefully corrected ; evidence of hopeless 
incapacity or of temperamental disqualification leads to 
removal of unpromising candidates ; inaccuracy in sub- 
ject matter is practically unknown, so stringent are the 
demands in scholarship ; and the trial lessons under 
kindly but keen criticism are sufficient in number to 
make the young teacher after his Probejahr an efficient 
teacher. 

Our initial difficulty in this matter is due to the 
great number of new teachers entering the field 
each year. In the secondary schools for boys in 
Prussia with a population of 37 to 38 millions, not 
more than 600 to 700 new secondary teachers enter 
the service each year;^ deaths, retirement with pen- 
sion privileges after thirty years of service, occasional 
withdrawals because of ill health, the necessities of 

lA detailed discussion of the German gymnasial seminary follows 
on pages 35 ff. 

2 The total number of boys in attendance at all the Prussian second- 
ary schools is 220,959, according to the government figures in 1909, 
and the entire number of teachers for them is about 11,000. {Monat- 
schriftfur h'ohere Schuleti, p. 296. June, 1910.) 



THE TEACHER 21 

newly organized schools to meet the growth in popula- 
tion, account for this number ; the cases of withdrawal 
into another occupation are practically negligible. The 
teachers are members of a profession in which they re- 
main continuously, unless disabled, for thirty years ; 
hence it is possible to provide fully for the training 
of the new teachers in seventy to eighty gymnasial 
seminaries. The recent legislation for the secondary 
girls' schools will call for an increase in the permanent 
secondary teaching force; it will approximately double 
this number, but the number of new teachers annually 
appointed will still be a relatively small one. 

With our thousands of new teachers entering the 
field each year, many of them without the intention 
of continuing in the work as a profession, the adop- 
tion of the system of the gymnasial seminary would 
be extremely difficult; the number of principals capa- 
ble of directing and willing to direct these young teach- 
ers might not easily be secured ; besides, the candidates 
themselves would be slow to recognize that their com- 
pensation during the first or trial year could only be 
nominal ; on the other hand, their growth in efficiency 
ought to increase their earning power rapidly. The 
proper place to initiate an approach to this system 
would be in the large school systems ; with the pro- 
viso, however, that the supervision should not be per- 
functory; definite allotment of time to the supervising 



22 THE AMERICAN SECONDARY SCHOOL 

officers of the seminary for this specific purpose would 
be an essential. ^ 

Among the many changes that such intelligent su- 
pervisory guidance would bring about, one of the most 
important would be a truer appreciation of the signifi- 
cance of the elementary or initial work in each subject. 
It is characteristic of most of our teachers that their 
ambition is always directed toward instruction in the 
higher classes of the secondary school ; the recent col- 
lege graduate prefers to teach Vergil and Cicero rather 
than first-year Latin, plane and solid geometry rather 
than the first stages of algebra ; he looks upon an as- 
signment to first-year work as unattractive drudgery, 
and strives to be emancipated from it at as early a day 
as possible ; the teacher of several years' experience is 
apt to regard assignment to first-year work in Latin or 
mathematics as a slight. Because, therefore, of the in- 
experience of the tyro and the reluctance of the experi- 
enced teacher, the most delicate and crucial work in the 
secondary school, that of the first year, is poorly carried 
out. 

This first-year work is distinctly of the utmost im- 

^ Brown, J. F., The Training of Teachers for Secondary Schools, Mac- 
millan, 1911, recognizes the great differences between our conditions 
and those of Prussia ; he does not, however, despair of incorporating 
some of the most important features of the German system into our 
training system; his Chapter XI, which is essentially constructive, is 
worthy of special study. 



THE TEACHER 23 

portance, and it should claim the highest teaching 
talent of the school ; to the prevalence of inexperienced 
teachers at this stage is due, more than to any other 
cause, the discouragement and lapse of interest of our 
first-year high school pupils. It has been a proHfic 
source of difficulties in our high schools that we have 
not broken with this misconception in regard to the 
first year's work. We have not taken into considera- 
tion in the arrangement of the first year that it calls 
for something very much more than a proportional ac- 
quisition of the four years' work; it involves a period 
of adjustment, which as an educational factor must 
claim a considerable proportion of the time. In this 
adjustment to a new phase of intellectual experience, in 
the transition from the exercise of the mnemonic faculty 
to that of reasoning ability, the art of the teacher finds 
its great opportunity ; it is in his power to transfigure 
the tiresome features inseparable from all fundamental 
work. The textbook may group the successive stages 
of advance in logical development, but the printed page 
is inflexible ; it does not suggest variety in the manner 
of progress. The mental status of the class, which can 
never be definitely measured in advance, suggests to 
the teacher various expedients, possible excursions from 
the usual path, to insure correct lines of procedure ; 
convention, tradition, must give way to the exigencies 
of a peculiar condition. 



24 THE AMERICAN SECONDARY SCHOOL 

The first-year high school work ^ makes the greatest 
demands on the teacher's mental and moral attitude; 
here, primarily, we need his enthusiasm, his love of im- 
parting, his judgment and good sense to secure the elastic 
rebound in class-activity.^ The teacher's problem is this : 
how can he weld into a homogeneous school organization 
the composite body, coming from various influences in 
the elementary schools ? Elementary education, even if 
identical in quantity, is likely to differ in quahty ; hence 
the value of solidarity at this point, of a common training 
in processes of thought and in habits of study. For this 
process of welding, of unification in new mental habits, 
it is wise to avoid differentiation in the first year's work ; 
the trend toward individualism it is desirable to inhibit, 
until the training of the first year has established the 
new method of reasoning procedure. A full apprecia- 
tion of freedom (and this applies to intellectual as well 
as to political freedom) does not result spontaneously ; 
pupils as well as adults cannot exercise with judgment 
a freedom whose responsibilities they have not grad- 
ually learned to appreciate. As in the political sphere, 
so in education, absence of the guiding hand is likely 
to breed license, where we hope for freedom. 

Many of our best schools, appreciating the nature of the 

1 Report Commissioner Education, p. 482. Washington, 1893. 

2 Laurie, S. S., The Training of Teachers, p. 60. Cambridge Uni- 
versity Press, 1901. 



THE TEACHER 25 

transition, defer to the end of the first year all attempts 
at differentiation of courses. Even a single year in Latin, 
under the instruction of an inspiring teacher, should 
prove of great gain to our English-speaking pupils ; to 
recognize the significance of its highly inflectional char- 
acter is at once a training in precision, in thought, and 
a valuable introduction to all foreign language study. 
The deliberation with which perforce we must proceed 
to unravel the meaning of a Latin sentence is a new 
and striking experience, and of similar value is the con- 
sideration of the suggestive vocabulary in which the 
transition from the literal significance of terms to their 
figurative application is more easily traced than when 
these same terms have been dulled to current coin. 
The new attitude toward study is the goal to be estab- 
lished in the first year ; to this goal everything else 
should be subsidiary, even the amount of specific infor- 
mation secured in a number of subjects. Incidentally 
to the pursuit of this goal there will dawn upon the 
pupil under the right kind of teacher, what the various 
subjects may offer him in intellectual satisfaction. This 
opening of vistas which should be both duty and pleas- 
ure of the high school teacher has not received its due 
attention ; to penetrate through the necessary and una- 
voidable routine of first-year subjects to glimpses of 
what is in store beyond, would often change monotony 
and discouragement into bright anticipation. It is only 



26 THE AMERICAN SECONDARY SCHOOL 

from the fullness of knowledge, from the glow of a gen- 
erous soul, that this illumination of the initial stages of 
the work can issue. 

Here again, the example of the German schools is 
significant; in every subject the teacher throughout his 
career may be assigned, and loves to be assigned, to the 
lowest as well as the higher classes ; if we remember 
that in the German secondary school we have a nine- 
year course, this becomes all the more striking. An 
examination of the teachers' schedule in any German 
secondary school will show the ordinarius (class teacher) 
of Prima, the highest class, assigned for a certain num- 
ber of periods per week to some of the lowest classes, 
and in some of the very best schools the Direktor (who 
always teaches) will himself take the beginners' class, 
say in French, in the first of their nine years, meet them 
again regularly as a class after a lapse of four years, 
and finally shape their advanced work in the same sub- 
ject in the ninth year of the curriculum. What an 
advantage this, to lay the foundations accurately, to 
gauge progress of the pupils and efficiency of cooper- 
ating teachers during the intervening years, and to 
measure in its final stage the value of an educational 
process ! 

The claim that it is dull and uninteresting to initiate 
pupils in the elements of a subject betrays a lack 
of teaching insight The primary teacher finds in- 



THE TEACHER 27 

spiration in her simple work ; she notes the steady ex- 
pansion of intelligence in her little pupils, and because 
of her quiet devotion to her work and enjoyment of her 
experiences, she attains marked success. It is not an 
exaggeration to say that the initial work in a subject 
determines definitely the success or non-success of the 
pupils ; the art of teaching is at its highest in this foun- 
dation work. And in college work, too, some of the 
greatest teachers, men who are eminent in research 
work, willingly undertake the introductory course in 
their subject, convinced that thus and only thus do they 
insure correct fundamental conceptions. 

The teacher of long and tried experience, who realizes 
what gaps ineffective teaching at the early stage leaves 
in the minds of the pupils, should take pride in claim- 
ing an opportunity for this introductory work; the 
richness of his experience and the abundance of his col- 
lateral information ought to fill it with substance, with 
promising outlook. 

When every teacher may be called upon to teach his 
subject and every stage of his subject, throughout the 
course, there will develop a system of cooperation 
that at present does not obtain. Even in a four-year 
high school course there exists too frequently a hierarchy 
of the higher and the lower teachers in the system, and 
the teacher of the higher classes is apt to thrust the blame 
for ineffective attainment of the student body upon the 



28 THE AMERICAN SECONDARY SCHOOL 

first and second year teacher ; this would largely dis- 
appear under the suggested change. How often will a 
teacher build up his presentation of a subject on the 
assumption of a certain quota of knowledge by the class, 
only to find that his effort has completely miscarried 
because he was building on quicksand ! It is vain in 
such situations to indulge in recriminations ; the teacher 
is himself at fault ; he has no right to take for granted 
what he has not assured himself of ; he must know what 
his pupils actually do possess of available information 
in a given subject. Still less excusable, and not less 
frequent, is the teacher's admission : " I thought I had 
discussed this subject with you before ; I see I am mis- 
taken." Such a lapse ought to be impossible ; it is the 
teacher's duty to keep such a record of his daily work 
with every class that in his preparation for a lesson he 
can make sure of every point covered and realize what 
has remained untouched. 

We need a much closer adjustment in the various 
stages of the work than is currently undertaken ; a 
mechanical distribution of the subject matter of instruc- 
tion for the several years does not suffice. No two 
successive first-year classes are identical in attainment, 
in eagerness ; a class that advances rather slowly in a 
given year or in a given subject may develop quite 
rapidly at a later stage, if its peculiarities are recognized 
and made use of ; it is here that a very intimate inter- 



THE TEACHER 29 

change of information between the teachers becomes 
valuable. 

The class book as a record of daily assignments, 
of daily advance in every subject, is a very marked 
feature of every German classroom; its value to the 
principal, the individual teacher, and to the student 
body is so patent that a close study of its serviceable- 
ness may be recommended to our schools. The daily 
record, made by each teacher over his own signature, 
immediately upon the completion of a teaching period, is 
scanned by every other teacher of the same class ; it 
makes for reasonable assignment, for reasonable ad- 
vance, insures against excessive pressure by an individ- 
ual teacher, discloses a complete picture of the home 
work expected, of the class work that has been com- 
pleted ; it stands for conscientious coordination of each 
teacher with his colleagues along the lines of procedure 
that have been adopted for each class. The practice of 
the German school, interpreted to incipient teachers by 
a sympathetic director and his experienced colleagues, 
establishes for these candidates standards whose tangible 
excellence they recognize ; nothing could adequately 
replace for them the personal touch of confidential 
relations. 

In addition, however, they can turn for guidance 
to the publication of model lessons in the various sub- 
jects of the secondary curriculum. In material of 



30 THE AMERICAN SECONDARY SCHOOL 

this kind our educational literature is quite barren,^ 
while German educational publications for several gen- 
erations have furnished numerous examples. In the 
Lehrproben und Lehrgdnge, published at Halle since 
1885, there may be found a great variety of model 
lessons in almost every subject of the secondary field, 
lessons submitted by acknowledged leaders in the teach- 
ing field; the Lehrproben constitute a great clearing 
house of experiences and new devices. The model 
lesson of the German schools sets forth the general 
aims of a given topic or series of topics and the pro- 
cedure in detail ; it varies widely according to its pur- 
pose. It may be an exposition of new subject matter, 
or an attempt to work out a series of thoughts induc- 
tively or deductively, or a comprehensive resum6 of 
previously acquired information. The scheme of the 
model lesson, worked out in detail in advance, or 
recorded stenographically in its progress before the 
class, is submitted through publication to the judgment 
of fellow-teachers ; it often furnishes the clew to new 
lines of procedure, and is a measure both of the teacher's 
point of view and of the proficiency developed in his 
class. 

The study of such model lessons suggests to the 
ambitious young teacher a comparison with his own 

1 This criticism does not apply to the elementary school ; cf. Mc- 
Murry, The Method of the Recitation, Chapters II, XI, XIV. 



THE TEACHER 3 1 

teaching processes. Let him note how definitely the 
standard of previous attainment of the class is measured, 
with what skill an anticipation of new development in 
the subject matter is aroused, how the activities of the 
whole class are invoked for the mastery of difficulties, 
by what varieties of legitimate device attention, conscious 
and unconscious, is secured, how the clearness of exposi- 
tion removes obscurity and hesitation, how the conquest 
of the individual's doubts is accomplished without sacri- 
fice of class progress. Let him realize how delicate the 
judgment that calls a halt at a given stage of the lesson 
for the purposes of a summary, or brings into play the 
subsidiary appliances of charts, maps, or other illustra- 
tive material, — how timely the transition from the 
teacher's leadership and initiative to the assumption of 
responsibility by the class, when it records the net 
results of the points gained, — and he will find in such a 
lesson a wealth of suggestiveness in educational possi- 
bilities. 

These model lessons illustrate among other things 
the tendency to correlate advanced work with the 
earlier stages of the same work, and to interweave the 
information gained in other subjects; the teacher's 
acquaintance with the pupils' progress in a number of 
subjects enables him to reenforce the results of previous 
instruction. Thus, the etymological and idiomatic 
peculiarities in several languages are developed on 



32 THE AMERICAN SECONDARY SCHOOL 

lines of analogy and divergence ; they need not be 
repeated in wearisome detail if they have already 
become familiar in the study of one language ; a wise 
economy promotes efficiency, and one of the most 
valuable results of these published lessons lies in their 
avoidance of needless repetition. In much that we 
teach there is a substantial repetition of what the pupil 
has already acquired under a different guise; we 
have been but too apt to magnify rather than minimize 
the burden of intellectual acquisition. How much 
might we gain in time and economy of effort if we used 
correlation more consciously, if each teacher aimed 
deliberately to present in related subjects the obvious 
application of the same principle ! To how many 
pupils is it made clear, for instance, that the principle 
of the square of the sum of two quantities is identical 
in arithmetic, algebra, and geometry ? A new arrange- 
ment, a group of facts viewed through a new facet, 
enlarges the pupils' knowledge without mere reitera- 
tion. 

Again, there is much to be accomplished in gauging 
the relative value of rule and exception. It is interest- 
ing to study the changed attitude of the Germans in 
this respect ; in all their recent school publications, as 
well as in the official programs of work, they guard 
against a possible distortion of values in this respect. 
We often obscure these relations in the minds of our 



THE TEACHER 33 

pupils by unwise, indiscriminating emphasis that some- 
times makes the exception loom up more striking than 
the rule which stands for recurrent, prevailing usage. 
Trusting to the frequency of occurrence of the normal 
practice which the pupil will meet, we gather little 
material to establish it; our efforts are concentrated 
on the departures from the norm. The pupil, equally 
unfamiliar with both forms of usage, takes his cue from 
the degree of emphasis expressed for the one or the 
other form, and is apt to mistake that which is more 
abundantly illustrated as the standard. It is one thing 
to establish for practical purposes current practice, an- 
other to interpret (but only for considerably advanced 
students) the very interesting survivals which the so- 
called exceptions often represent. 

An explanation of our lack of model lessons in 
secondary school subjects it is not difhcult to find. We 
have been enthralled by the authority of the textbook ; 
in consequence there has been little inducement to 
work out such schemes of independent work. But 
with the emancipation of our best teachers from the 
trammels of the textbook, this need will grow ; in 
mathematics and science it is even now carried out, 
and it is not difficult to realize its value in the teach- 
ing of history and geography, and in developing an 
understanding and appreciation of literature in the 
vernacular. 



34 THE AMERICAN SECONDARY SCHOOL 

2. Professional preparation. 

The professional preparation of the teacher should 
embrace a number of divergent considerations, on the 
nature and purposes of education, the growth and re- 
sponsiveness of the pupil, the serviceability of certain 
subjects to the attainment of certain ends,^ What he 
requires as preliminary to successful prosecution of his 
work is theoretical and practical guidance as to the ' 
management of the classroom, the conduct of the class 
exercise, and the stimulation of mental activity in the 
pupils. This theoretical and practical work will never 
prove effective if its precepts are not based on actual 
teaching experience. Both should be in the hands of 
teachers whose knowledge of these two sides has been 
developed in actual contact with the school; this re- 
quires no special argument in the case of the practical 
work, but on the theoretical side too it may be said that 
the applicability of doctrine to the needs of the class- 
room is best measured by an expert who is actually en- 
gaged in teaching. The abstractions of educational 

* In England, as in the United States, despite the efforts of many 
thoughtful teachers, there still prevails a reluctance to recognize the 
need of professional training. 

To assert (Report of Birmingham Conference on Training of Second- 
ary Teachers, London Joum. Education, p. 331. May, 1904) that the 
traditions of teachers of inspiring personality, a kind of generalized ex- 
perience, are better than specific theoretical knowledge, embodies a 
considerable element of conceit. 



THE TEACHER 35 

doctrine, the inferences that may be drawn from the 
history of past educational efforts, may prove useless or 
misleading, unless tempered by knowledge of the use 
that class experience may make of them. 

Even Germany was formerly committed to our theory 
that in the case of the secondary teacher knowledge 
of subject matter alone insured good teaching; it has 
abandoned this fatal misconception, and has developed 
within the last twenty years a most successful system 
of professional preparation. It has pronounced defi- 
nitely against mere university instruction in educa- 
tional doctrine and educational history.^ 

In its £vmnasm I seminaries which are now the recog- 
nized means of training secondary teachers, the theoreti- 
cal side of teaching is intrusted to the carefully selected 
heads of secondary schools. These men, acknowledged 
as eminent teachers and as successful expositors of educa- 
tional theory in their practical teaching, guide the young 
aspirants in the teaching field through such a survey of 
educational principles as applies to the exigencies of the 
schoolroom. Their own teaching and that of expert 

1 1. P. Voss (a Norwegian). Die p'ddagogische Vorbildungzum hoheren 
Lehramt. Halle, 1889. Voss was sent by the Norwegian 
government to study the German system. 

2. W. Fries, Die wissenschaftliche und praktische Vorbildung fUr das 

hohere Lehramt, 2d ed. Munich, 1910. 

3. Langlois, La Preparation Professiotielle a Penseignement secondaire. 

Paris, 1902. 

4. Neff , Das p'ddagogische Seminar. Munich, 1908. 



36 THE AMERICAN SECONDARY SCHOOL 

associates specially designated for this work, is recog- 
nized as an embodiment of the best educational doctrine 
in actual teaching ; in consequence, the aspirant has oc- 
casion to witness at once the practical forms which the 
application of educational doctrine assumes ; the indi- 
viduality of each director modifies doctrine in its applica- 
tion to practice, and introduces the element of flexibility 
into the influence of the gymnasial seminary. 

A current criticism of the German school system that it 
is inflexible, that it impairs the individuality of the teacher, 
is disproved by the history of these seminaries ; students 
of the official utterances of the Prussian Ministry of In- 
struction would change their critical attitude, if they 
followed closely the experiences of the seminaries. It 
is left entirely with the director of each seminary to 
shape according to his personal convictions the training 
of his candidate teachers, and the government specifically 
acknowledges the value of freedom in experimentation.^ 
Contact with a number of these seminaries reveals the 
variety in method of guidance which exists in different 
seminaries ; the one director proceeds from a philo- 
sophic discussion of principles to the conditions of 
practice, the other develops in great detail the require- 
ments of practice before any attempt at formulation of 
principles is made. The records of procedure at the 

1 Lexis, Die hokeren Lehranstalten^ p. 25. Publ. for the St. Louis Ex- 
position, 1904. 



THE TEACHER 37 

various seminaries are carefully kept, and are frequently 
interchanged for purposes of comparison. It may be 
assumed that gradually a consensus of opinion will 
unite upon the most effective method of conducting 
these institutions ; the authorities distinctly disclaim 
preconceived notions ; they look upon these seminaries 
as so many laboratories of independent research. The 
test of excellence will determine eventually the merit of 
divergent systems of approach, but because of the value 
of personality in the director and his associates there 
will never be a levehng to one code of procedure.^ 

In Dr. J. F. Brown's book. The Training of Teachers 
for Secondary Schools, there is available in English the 
most recent exposition of the system of the gymna- 
sial seminary ; his recorded observations were made in 
the Franckesche Stiftungen at Halle on the Saale 
(Prussia), and are typical of the best that German ed- 
ucational theory has thus far elaborated.^ The group 
of schools at Halle is unique, because an ancient en- 
dowment (over two hundred years have elapsed since 
its inception) affords under one administrative head a 
number of types of elementary and secondary schools, 
a gymnasium, a Realgymnasium, a girls' school, an or- 

1 A particularly sympathetic study of the various types of German 
gymnasial seminaries appears in Langlois, I.e. 

2 The gymnasial seminary at Halle was initiated in its present form 
by Frick in 1881 under the old name of Seminarium prseceptorum ; cf. 
Fries, Die wissenschaftliche Vbrbildung, etc., p. 70. 



38 THE AMERICAN SECONDARY SCHOOL 

phan asylum, an elementary school, a boarding school. 
The two directors who have successively given it its 
present prestige. Dr. Otto Frick and Dr. Wilhelm 
Fries, have elaborated a procedure that has been ac- 
cepted in the main by the government as the standard 
of all gymnasial seminaries. It should be stated that 
with the Halle group the gymnasial seminary at Gies- 
sen, created about the same time by Dr. Hermann 
Schiller, served as a prototype of the present day 
gymnasial seminaries, as they have been developed 
with governmental approval. Schiller, however, per- 
mitted and encouraged larger groups of candidate 
teachers ; his classes often numbered from twenty-five 
to thirty. This scheme of the larger class has been 
completely abandoned in favor of the smaller group 
(of six to eight candidates) because of the more inti- 
mate personal contact it allows; the close personal 
direction has been recognized as fundamental to the 
success of the scheme. The conspicuous advantage 
of the seminary in the Franckesche Stiftungen over 
all others rests however in the advantage offered to 
the candidates to observe constantly in the several 
types of schools, and to compare the applicability of 
method to these different schools. It is from Halle 
in particular that issues the doctrine of homogeneity 
in principle between elementary and secondary school 
practice. 



THE TEACHER 39 

As with US in America the German elementary school 
had elaborated in its practice the intelligent application of 
the Herbartian Formalstufen ; the secondary schools of 
Germany had rejected as useless this Herbartian doctrine, 
until the directors at Halle pointed out its value, with nec- 
essary modifications, for the higher schools. The motto 
of the gymnasial seminary has been formulated by one of 
its great leaders in the phrase : " Suchen und Versuchen " 
(Reflection and Trial), It represents very happily the 
aim of all present-day German teaching as well as of 
its training courses. In view of the acknowledged ex- 
cellence in substance and in method of the German 
school system there is a profound suggestiveness to us 
in this motto. More than ever before are the Ger- 
man secondary schools engaged in reflection on their 
processes, and in trial of improved methods. Without 
sacrificing the unique quality of their previous attain- 
ments in the classics, in mathematics, in history and 
modern languages, they are collecting from their own 
experiences and from observation of efforts elsewhere 
means of heightening the effectiveness and the econ- 
omy of their teaching. Their teachers continue to be 
restless searchers for efficiency from the day they enter 
upon their career as candidate teachers until they re- 
tire from service ; they are ready to give of their best 
insight for the sake of the general cause, and freely 
adopt what others have produced, if it conduces to 



40 THE AMERICAN SECONDARY SCHOOL 

efficiency in the schools. Such teachers, furthermore, 
cannot be the slaves to unalterable prescription that 
some would stamp them ; within the range of sound, 
scholarly work (and of other work the Germans have 
no knowledge) there is at least as great variety and 
flexibility as in our school courses, less mechanical con- 
formity, because of individual confidence in the power 
to produce definite results. 

The distinguishing features of these seminaries are 
the following : The candidates have attained a homoge- 
neous equipment in subject matter; that is guaranteed 
by the successful state examination^ which precedes 
their enrollment as members of the seminary. A limited 
number, five to eight, are accepted as candidates in 
each seminary ; this establishes an intimate personal 
acquaintance of the director and his staff with each 
one of them, with their personal peculiarities, their so- 
cial qualifications, their intellectual and moral attitude. 
It secures a very close relation between the candidates 
themselves ; they are accepted as j unior members of 
the teaching family, are considered the heirs as it were 
of the present generation of teachers. There is no 
doubt of their intention to attach themselves perma- 
nently to the profession ; it is highly honored in the 
social scale, fairly well remunerated (better than with 
us), and leads up to a pension for faithful service. 

1 Brown, J. F., Lc, p. 194. Fries, W., Lc, pp. 1-11. 



THE TEACHER 4I 

They breathe the professional atmosphere in their in- 
timate contact with the teachers in service ; they are 
initiated into the problems and the trials of the class- 
room ; they are able to measure their own first efforts 
by comparison with the performance of tried and rec- 
ognized teachers ; they are invited to question these 
teachers in daily intercourse regarding the details of 
class instruction, as they witness it 

The majority of the teaching staff are men of acknowl- 
edged scholarship, and the candidates realize the possi- 
bility of combining scholarly aspiration with practical 
teaching power; they learn to appreciate the value of 
continued scholarly endeavor amid the routine of daily 
exposition ; they note that successful adherence to a pre- 
scribed line of advance does not preclude the maintenance 
of individuality and originality. They are subjected to 
incisive criticism, but it is tempered by a kindly attitude, 
for the leaders of the seminary aim to be helpful guides, 
pointing out the blemishes that arise from inexperience 
and helplessness. On the other hand these leaders are 
in a position to eliminate from the profession those who 
are manifestly incapable of becoming effective teachers, 
and here too lies one of their greatest services to the 
individual concerned as well as to the state. More 
important than all, these young men learn to appreciate 
the significance of cooperative effort to the scholar as 
well as to the teacher ; they see the most accomplished 



42 THE AMERICAN SECONDARY SCHOOL 

and experienced teachers (often the director himself) 
carry out with skill and enthusiasm the instruction in 
the rudiments of each subject, enriching the content 
from the fullness of their own knowledge, and they are 
in a position to observe the value of teaching experi- 
ence at the most crucial point in the course, when the 
elements of a new subject are to be taught. 

It would be of the greatest service to our American 
teachers if they could gain from personal observation an 
insight into the Prussian Gymnasial Seminary. No other 
feature of the Prussian school system gives promise of 
greater value ; and it is characteristic of the spirit that 
permeates them that properly accredited teachers ex- 
perience little difficulty in securing an invitation to 
follow their work. French, Norwegian, and English 
students of secondary education speak with equal en- 
thusiasm of the sympathetic spirit that prevails in these 
model training schools.^ 

The system of exchange teachers between Prussia 
and the United States, initiated by the Carnegie Foun- 
dation, furnishes to our most promising teachers oppor- 

1 Striking appreciations of the method pursued in the Gymnasial 
Seminaries in Chabot, Ch., La Pedagogic au Lycee. Paris, 1903. These 
Notes de Voyage, and especially the concluding chapter, afford illumi- 
nating contrasts between the German and French methods of training. 
Langlois, La Preparation professionelle, quotes with approval the favor- 
able verdict on the Gymnasial Seminaries in Paulsen's Geschichte des 
gelehrten Unterrichts, II, 624. 



THE TEACHER 43 

tunities for the study of this system ; and the sacrifice 
of a year of one's professional career is amply repaid 
by the insight gained. That this opportunity is not 
more strenuously sought is, amongst other things, an 
evidence that the desire for professional advancement 
is not yet sufficiently keen. In his fourth Annual 
Report of the Carnegie Foundation, 1909 (pp. 147-156), 
President Pritchett discusses the study of German teach- 
ing methods made by the American exchange teachers. 
Shall we ever succeed in establishing such a system 
of training for our secondary school teachers as the 
German gymnasial seminaries afford ? For our guid- 
ance certain facts should stand out clearly. However 
full and exact the teacher's information in subject matter, 
it requires persistent study to adjust it to. the practical 
needs of the school. The teacher in active service 
must continue a student — a truism that has been pro- 
claimed from the housetops. What is the type of study 
that we ought to demand of him ? We know that the 
self-respecting teacher will never face his class without 
due preparation for the task of the day ; this obligation 
is quite generally recognized, but does this conception 
of duty meet the ideal demands of the teaching pro- 
fession .'' The majority of teachers undertake this ob- 
ligation in a literal and mechanical sense ; they prepare 
for the coming lesson because without such preparation 
their knowledge of the topics might prove inadequate. 



44 THE AMERICAN SECONDARY SCHOOL 

unsound ; they rehearse the allotted topics to make 
themselves sure of accuracy of statement, correctness 
in perspective. This is not what we would regard as 
preparation ; a teacher who must rehearse the assigned 
lesson to guard against betraying in the eyes of his 
pupils his ignorance of the subject matter is on a low 
plane of intellectual effort. The assumption of such a 
necessity is indeed an absurdity. And yet how many 
teachers are so uncertain even in fields in which they 
profess to specialize that they themselves con the as- 
signed lessons to make sure of their own statements, 
perform the allotted examples to avoid lapses into error, 
etc. Preparation of this kind is a confession of inability; 
to the teacher the performance of these tasks should 
be the veritable a b c oi his art. It is preparation in 
the broader sense that we demand, the introduction of 
collateral material, the opening up of new vistas by which 
he should strive to illuminate the routine recitation. 

It is a familiar experience that those who have de- 
voted much thought, constant effort, after graduation to 
the development of their teaching powers are apt to be 
most diffident of success. Not hy teaching do we learn, 
but in teaching we learn ; docendo discimiis is but too 
often falsely applied ; not that teaching makes self- 
instruction, self-improvement, unnecessary, on the con- 
trary in teaching we feel our own weaknesses, and 
should feel prompted to go on ever supplementing, re- 



THE TEACHER 45 

adjusting our information. The mature teacher who 
has never ceased to enlarge his own sphere of knowl- 
edge marvels that he ever dared to teach with the lim- 
ited outfit of his early preparation, and it is he who 
realizes how much better a teacher each year of future 
study will make him. But it is only personal effort 
that will make him conscious of this ever widening vista 
of attainable information. He only will never relax in 
generous interest in a subject, says a recent writer, who 
constantly feels a growth in his own conception of the 
subject. 

It is a curious fact that in many quarters there pre- 
vails with us a kind of suspicion against a teacher who 
scans the newest publications for additional light on the 
subjects he teaches ; it is in all seriousness deemed an 
element of danger in his teaching, this unrest because 
of the new avenues into which his studies may lead 
him ; it is feared, forsooth, that such a teacher may too 
easily abandon established lines of presentation in favor 
of new views. From a teacher of genuinely inquiring 
spirit no such danger need be apprehended ; the very 
spirit that reacts against mechanical repetition prompts 
him to distinguish between that which is eternally valu- 
able and that which is of ephemeral interest. The 
young teacher may, for a season, miscalculate the pro- 
portion of things, and accentuate unduly to his pupils 
what to him seems of the greatest moment, but he will 



46 THE AMERICAN SECONDARY SCHOOL 

soon realize that he can present, year after year, the es- 
sentials of his subject with absolute accuracy, and yet, 
without shifting the proper balance of things important 
and unimportant, keep his own intellectual interests in 
view. 

As long as the teacher remains a student, an in- 
quirer, he will resist the dullness of the commonplace; 
but unfortunately in too many instances the only ad- 
vance striven for is in the direction of routine attain- 
ment, of skill in the manipulations of the art of teach- 
ing. Temporarily this is of course a clear gain, but the 
skill which is not constantly illuminated and permeated 
by new insight, becomes a deadly cleverness which 
manipulates pupils for results and tabulates their at- 
tainments by finely-graduated percentages. 

For the individual teacher it is vital to counteract the 
deadening effect of the inevitable repetition that succes- 
sive years of teaching the same subject require; he 
realizes that the essentials of the subject must be in- 
sisted upon with absolute accuracy, but if his private 
reading has revealed new aspects of the subject, its 
familiar details will be enUvened for him, and conse- 
quently for his pupils, by the new inspiration. There 
are those who dread the influence of desultoriness 
from such new acquisition ; they argue that it may 
defeat systematic work. Not so ; exuberance is eas- 
ily checked; sterility is the deadly sin. The good 



THE TEACHER 47 

teacher is always the intellectually live teacher. A 
case in point is our striking improvement in mathe- 
matical teaching within recent years ; the impulse due 
to John Perry's articles,^ and to the description of Eu- 
ropean methods of mathematical teaching in the books 
of Young and Smith,^ has permanently affected the 
thought of our best mathematical teachers; individu- 
ally and in conferences there has been a recasting of 
teaching processes that is reflected in such journals as 
School Science and Mathematics, in activities of larger 
teaching bodies, as in the Report of the New Eng- 
land Association of Mathematical Teachers on Es- 
sential Propositions of Geometry, and in the newest 
mathematical textbooks. 

Similarly the teaching in modern languages is on the 
eve of a marked transformation, due to the growing 
acquaintance of the most progressive teachers, through 
personal observation and zealous study of the literature, 
with the Direct Method that has conquered its way to 
recognition all over Europe. In this particular case 
our textbook authors are still lagging ; but few suc- 
cessful efforts to embody the new processes have been 
published with us ; the thoughtful teachers are creating 

1 Perry, John, The Teaching of Mathematics. London, 1902. 

2 Young, J. W. A., The Teaching of Mathematics in the Elementary 
and Secondary Schools, especially chaps. VI and X. Longmans, 1907. 
Smith, David Eugene, The Teaching of Elementary Mathematics. Mac- 
miUan, 1902. 



48 THE AMERICAN SECONDARY SCHOOL 

the demand, and meanwhile use, under many disadvan- 
tages, the material published abroad and in foreign 
tongues. 

So, too, in the teaching of science and of the classics, 
a limited number of teachers are responsible for a prop- 
aganda that will result in a readjustment both of meth- 
ods of instruction and of the aims of teaching these 
subjects. 

Under such influences it is to be hoped that those 
who are called upon to select teachers will meet less 
frequently, and accept still less frequently, the college 
graduate who has nothing more to learn, who feels con- 
tent with the higher education he has attained. It is be- 
coming daily more clear how infinitely complex is this 
apparently simple task of conveying information, of 
stimulating interest and developing mental and moral 
habits. A teacher who is completely satisfied with him- 
self has forfeited his usefulness ; a school prospers with 
the intellectual and professional growth of its individual 
teachers. With all his vagaries, the teacher who has 
originative power is a tower of strength in the community. 

For genuine stimulation of intellectual growth (in 
subject matter rather than in pedagogic skill) the 
summer schools of our universities afford an opportu- 
nity that ambitious teachers gladly avail themselves 
of ; to many of them these schools have been the true 
starting point for individual work. The earnestness of 



THE TEACHER 49 

purpose, the maturity of the students, the clearer esti- 
mate of values make these brief and comparatively- 
sketchy courses a basis for further progress ; " learning 
for learning's sake " marks the general tone of the sum- 
mer school. Even misdirected energy is preferable to 
apathy, for it challenges sane energy. 

Valuable, however, as is the growth in knowledge 
of subject matter, its application to teaching demands 
definite theoretic instruction, definitely directed practice. 
The Committee of Fifteen ^ repudiate the idea of a suc- 
cess attainable by an intuitive feeling for what is cor- 
rect, "the most treacherous of all standards." 

There have accumulated gradually from close ob- 
servation and psychological deductions a certain num- 
ber of guiding principles that are available for every 
young teacher; to ignore these is to forfeit the value 
of previous experiences ; to apply them does not call 
for the sacrifice of a teacher's individuality. It is 
wholesome and not cramping to the mind of a young 
teacher, if he gives himself and his associates or supe- 
riors an exact account of what he aims at in his teach- 
ing, and why he follows out a certain procedure. 
Natural ability is stimulated, not hindered, by a wise 
and purposeful control ; the great thinkers of all ages 
agree that rational discipline improves native power. 

1 Report of Committee of Fifteen, pp. 27-39, published for the N. E. A. 
by the American Book Company, 1895. 

£ 



50 THE AMERICAN SECONDARY SCHOOL 

It is, for instance, a matter of common acceptance that 
the attention of a class must be secured at the outset, if 
successful work is to be done ; that the teacher's visual 
and auditory senses are involved in the highest degree 
to insure attention, to prevent misstatements and inac- 
curacies from leaving their impress on the young minds 
(a critical visitor is often amazed at the amount of mis- 
information that some teachers will allow to pass un- 
noticed) ; it is likewise an accepted doctrine that every 
lesson should follow a distmct plan, actually outlined on 
paper, or else mentally organized, from the terminus a 
quo to the terminus ad quern ; that only thus is it pos- 
sible to accentuate the essentials and subordinate the 
incidentals, a scheme quite as important for the pupil 
as for the instructor ; that a rate of advance must be de- 
termined at the outset, conditioned in part by the nature 
of the subject and the object of the lesson, in part by 
the mental status of the pupils. The achievements of 
a self-possessed, enthusiastic teacher compare with the 
vacillating processes of a novice like the steady pace 
of a well-trained horse with the jerky plunges of an un- 
broken colt. The effect on the pupils is always in evi- 
dence ; the conscious direction and impulse of an expert 
will in the shortest time develop activity, interest, en- 
ergy, even from sluggish pupils ; the erratic teacher 
will exhaust the vitaUty and attention even of the best 
pupils. 



THE TEACHER 5 1 

The Art of Teaching will of necessity involve two 
spheres of preliminary activity — the sphere of observa- 
tion and that of practice teaching. Criticism must 
accompany both phases, differentiated according to the 
circumstances. The student teacher, as he observes, 
exercises his own critical faculty ; he notes in the class- 
room he is visiting the attitude of both teacher and 
pupils, acquires for himself a standard of proper bear- 
ing, interprets the attitude of the teacher, determines, 
if he can, the causes of abnormal conditions. They 
may be due to peculiar methods of the teacher or to 
a peculiar corporate school-attitude which he must like- 
wise try to fathom. Here comparison of many classes, 
of several schools, is necessary, observation of the same 
class under various teachers. Voice, manner of the 
teacher, temperamental details, conditions of physical 
comfort or discomfort in the pupils, all these factors are 
important. He will try to determine from the routine 
conduct of the lesson, of several lessons, the presence 
of an actual method : Is there a method ? Is it inflexible ? 
How does this express itself in the interest and respon- 
siveness of the pupil .'' Or is it flexible ? Does this flex- 
ibility approach the limit of desultoriness .■• Has the 
teacher the power to correlate his facts and to convey the 
impression of a design maintained throughout .-' Does 
the class exercise result in a distinct and appreciable 
advance in information or method ? What relation does 



52 THE AMERICAN SECONDARY SCHOOL 

the conscious development of method bear to the presen- 
tation of subject matter ? This is a question of particu- 
lar significance and particular danger in a school that is 
intended to be a school of observation, for method is, 
after all, subordinate to that which is to be presented 
methodically. Is a moderate advance along the infor- 
mational side warranted by the significant attainment 
of a point in method ? (In mathematics a slow advance 
may really signify a marked gain in insight.) The 
value of such observations is enhanced for the student 
teacher if he can obtain from the teacher whose work 
he has been watching, sympathetic answers in corrobora- 
tion or correction of his impressions. 

It is a difhcult question to decide, and it has been 
decided in various ways, whether theoretic discussions 
of educational methods with the teacher candidate had 
better precede or follow the observational and the prac- 
tice work of the candidate. A novice should not, I 
believe, undertake observation and practice without a 
previous acquaintance with the fundamentals of peda- 
gogy ; we do not want blind groping at method. But, 
on the other hand, it may be set down as an axiom that 
the true meaning of theory reveals itself only in the 
light of actual experimentation ; of infinitely greater 
value is the renewed consideration of principles, when 
the test of experience supervenes. The personal equation 
in this case is the supreme modifying influence for the 



THE TEACHER 53 

young teacher ; not what is the sound method of 
handling the subject matter, but what can I, the teacher, 
with the pupils intrusted to me (considering my and 
their personal equation), make the most effective method ? 
Educational principles cannot be applied like mathe- 
matical formulas, like immutable laws. 

The most valuable period of a teacher's training, then, 
is in the year of probation and the first years of actual ex- 
perience, when, studying his handbooks of theory, he 
measures their recommendations by the standards he has 
gathered in actual practice. Not every teacher, not even 
every good teacher, affords at all times favorable oppor- 
tunity for such observation as has been here described ; 
there are many, the charm of whose teaching is only 
revealed when they are perfectly at their ease ; they are 
disturbed by the presence of a number of observers. 
Such idiosyncrasies must be borne in mind when candi- 
dates undertake to visit in large bodies a single class- 
room ; it is questionable whether one then sees even the 
best teachers at their best, and it is equally doubtful 
whether under such circumstances we get the normal 
class attitude ; we must visit the same teacher, the same 
class, frequently, until the novelty of our presence has 
worn off with teacher and pupils. 

Because of these very obvious difficulties, it follows 
that in a school intended to serve as a model for obser- 
vation, none but teachers of the very highest order, both 



54 THE AMERICAN SECONDARY SCHOOL 

in scholastic attainments and in didactic efficiency, 
should be permitted ; none of the weaknesses just men- 
tioned should flagrantly obtrude themselves. Teachers 
with crude methods, themselves uncertain in their 
methods, should never be permitted in such training 
schools as regular class teachers; if they are to be 
observed as models, they must not illustrate to the 
student teacher how not to do it. 

Criticism of what has been observed is the other half 
of the observational scheme. Here particularly the 
sound mind will assert itself ; it is easier to criticize than 
to interpret action ; we must needs project ourselves into 
the conditions under which we see the teacher operate, 
and then weigh and estimate. 

We must not lose sight of the fact that the prospec- 
tive teacher in his visits to various classes has two ob- 
jects in view, each of which involves a different kind of 
observation. It is to be assumed that every candidate 
plans to teach certain subjects ; in the technique of 
these he is for a multitude of reasons vitally interested. 
All the subjects of the curriculum, however, afford in- 
sight into the principles of those who teach them ; he is 
therefore also ready to appropriate what these other sub- 
jects may convey to him in suggestion and actual pre- 
cept. His attitude toward observation of his special 
subjects will, if he is wise, differ very markedly from 
his outlook upon the broader field. Economy of effort 



THE TEACHER 55 

dictates that when he watches the teaching in his own 
sphere of activity, he will devote but a short time to a 
consideration of the general aims of the subject. With 
the main point of view clearly fixed in his mind, his 
later experience will constantly bring this question 
afresh before him. He will move toward the specific 
problems as he sees them, the method or methods of 
developing the subject, of securing interest and efficiency 
in the pupils, the aids to instruction employed, their 
particular value for the purpose in hand. The general 
principles that underlie the teaching in other subjects 
he will gather from observation on more sweeping lines. 
This matter of economy of effort in observation is not 
easily attained by the beginner, but he must control his 
energies ; even the experienced teacher is in danger 
of wasting his time when he inspects for his own 
enlightenment systems of education with which he is 
unfamiliar. 

To emerge from observation into practice teaching is 
to the novice a critical experience of the first order. I 
do not apply the words practice teaching to the crude at- 
tempts in class instruction which are based on no pre- 
ceding reflection, such work as a young college graduate 
might do who without guidance or deliberate pedagogic 
preparation believes that by some mysterious dispensa- 
tion he will issue unscathed from the ordeal ; I refer 
rather to the teacher who from prolonged observation 



56 THE AMERICAN SECONDARY SCHOOL 

and preparation for the special duty comes to the task 
with a definite purpose, a definite scheme. All the 
familiarity with the subject matter that he can muster 
must be available ; he must have removed by careful 
reflection on his theme all reasonable chances of dis- 
comfiture on the informational path, so that his mind 
may operate freely in the one direction which is entirely 
new and personal, however frequently he may have 
seen others teach. His personal equation enters for the 
first time into the calculation, and however closely he 
may have studied voice, manner, bearing of others, his 
own individuality which, despite all efforts at imitation, 
pervades all that he does, and is so recognized by 
the pupils, becomes a potent factor in the trial. It need 
not be a final factor, for many a young teacher's first 
appearance before a class shows obvious shortcomings 
that admit of remedy. 

The main point will be that criticism of a broad, 
constructive type is afforded him, criticism that is 
capable of grasping the total value of a performance 
in its light and shade, that will not indulge in hair- 
splitting; it is this kind of work that inspires with 
strength and confidence, that uplifts the hearts of the 
weak, and yet indicates unerringly the nature of the 
weakness. There should be if possible both positive and 
negative criticism of the candidate's performance; an 
absolute condemnation of his performance is as undesir- 



THE TEACHER 57 

able as undiscriminating praise; nothing is absolutely 
bad, nothing absolutely perfect. But beyond this, there 
should always be sought, either by the associates or by 
the teacher in authority, some formulation of a broader 
conception that carries the exercise beyond its concrete 
limitations ; from the exercise as a whole, or from some 
one of its phases, it should be possible to establish re- 
lation with some general educational problem that has 
evoked a divergence of opinion, or that deserves more 
detailed consideration. ^ Whatever we can do to arouse, 
aside from the technique of our profession, a vivid 
interest in the philosophic aspects of our work, is a 
stimulus to the young teacher's further inquiries. 

Let the practice teaching be carried on genuinely, i.e. 
let the pupils correspond in age and mental advance- 
ment to those the teacher will probably have to deal 
with. It does not seem at all profitable to devise what 
might be called an artificial class for the practice teach- 
ing. A seminary class of one's associates does not af- 
ford a genuine opportunity for the test of a teacher's 
power ; it does not present the mental status of the real 
pupil. It may injure the young teacher in various 
ways ; he is not dealing with representative average 

1 The business of teacher (and physician alike), says Findlay, Prin- 
ciples of Class Teaching, p. 263, Macmillan, 1902, is to search for com- 
mon principles, springing out of, and again reflecting upon, daily 
practice. 



58 THE AMERICAN SECONDARY SCHOOL 

pupils ; they would follow the bent of his questions too 
promptly, so that he is not forced to the full exercise 
of his teaching ingenuity. Again, such a mature body 
of colleagues will not furnish the naive surprises that 
come from irresponsive or undeveloped minds, and that 
are inseparable from genuine teaching. 

It is a matter of common observation, here and 
abroad, how rapidly under judicious and sympathetic 
criticism the most obvious errors of method disappear 
in young teachers ; there are few who are not appre- 
ciably benefited by an experienced guide. And these 
initial difficulties once overcome, there is given leeway 
for the development of the personal factor in the 
teacher. FlexibiHty in teaching, the capacity to im- 
part light and shade to the work, to know when the 
pace can afford to be accelerated, when it must be re- 
tarded, when the outlines, the sharp definition, of the 
work must be maintained at all hazards, when it is to 
be accentuated, when, on the other hand, a digression 
is a wholesome reenforcement of a set plan, when the 
logical array of a succession of facts will summarize 
what has been deftly developed in patient detail work — 
those are the qualities in which the growth of the 
teacher becomes manifest. And such growth will is- 
sue, not so much from length of service, as it will from 
independent work on his part, due to his own constant 
study. 



THE TEACHER 59 

The opinion is gaining wider acceptance that many 
of the issues which the writers on educational subjects 
have been treating dogmatically, in abstract generaliza- 
tions as it were, have a personal implication and must 
be regarded from this point of view rather than from 
theoretical considerations. Take for instance the im- 
portant subject of Class Management To formulate 
principles which shall secure the desired ends is idle, 
unless the teacher's personality is capable of translating 
them into practice ; there is no escape from the cumu- 
lative responsibility centering in and about the teacher. 
His mental,, physical, and moral qualities determine suc- 
cess or failure ; whatever the constitution of the class, 
whatever the social atmosphere in which his educational 
task lies, a measure of successful performance can al- 
ways be reached, if he is intellectually resourceful, nor- 
mally balanced, free from pedantry, and inspiring. 
Himself an exemplar of abounding energy and vi- 
tality, his bearing and his view of life should inspire 
confidence and invite to imitation of his conduct. Of 
his mental equipment we have already spoken. 

It is no disparagement of the value of the informa- 
tional outfit that the teacher brings to his task to at- 
tribute an equal importance to the physical and the 
moral side of the teacher's equipment. Teaching is 
always an arduous task, in its preliminaries of prepa- 
ration, its actual conduct in the class, and its subsequent 



6o THE AMERICAN SECONDARY SCHOOL 

duties. Physical frailty is a serious handicap to suc- 
cess ; an abounding vitality that carries with it the 
evidence of physical well-being and draws upon a large 
reserve of unexpended energy, appeals wonderfully to 
vigorous, alert adolescents. Good health, a good consti- 
tution, sound lungs, with their concomitant, a normally 
resonant voice, are priceless assets of the teacher. The 
teacher who directly or indirectly craves by his bearing the 
indulgence of his class, has forfeited no slight advantage. 
The teacher in Germany, male or female, stands, 
moves freely before the class in teaching, teaches twenty 
to twenty-four hours per week, and continues in this prac- 
tice through thirty years without apparent physical im- 
pairment. So unusual is the sight of a seated teacher, 
that an apology is offered, e.g. recent recovery from 
severe illness, for the unusual phenomenon (in sixty-five 
classes visited during one stay in Germany I saw but 
one teacher seated before his class). The American 
teacher, male and female, usually sits, sits continu- 
ously, claims that there is something reposeful, quiet- 
ing, in the habitual posture at the desk ; do we lose 
sight of the fact that the sedentary attitude de rigeur, 
whether of pupil or of teacher, is not conducive to 
mental alertness .'' The German teacher has no fear 
of rapid, energetic movement in the classroom ; and his 
pupils move with considerable alacrity to and from the 
blackboard, without the slightest impairment of class 



THE TEACHER 6 1 

discipline ; life, bustle, mobility, make the classroom 
more human, less abnormal. The teacher who moves 
freely will of necessity liberate himself from the shack- 
les of the textbook, or, shall we say because of his 
independence of the textbook he feels himself freer in 
his movements, able to survey the activities of his class 
from various points of vantage ? Without being vola- 
tile or restless, he is far more competent to feel the 
pulse of the entire class, to gauge the advisability of 
retardation or acceleration of pace, to modulate with 
discretion between the colloquial tone in teaching and 
the more formal utterance, to introduce relevant, col- 
lateral information. Physical impact of individual upon 
individual becomes an advantageous element of class 
discipline ; and many of the disabilities of imperfect 
eyesight, of defective hearing that will develop in 
teachers as in other mortals are mitigated. It is ob- 
vious that the physical alertness of the teacher affects 
materially many questions of class discipline. 

How often are we teachers unknowingly the promoters 
of disciplinary infractions, when our own activity would 
constitute the ounce of prevention ! How often could 
we by the force that inheres in unobtrusive example 
affect the bearing of our pupils, if we would but remem- 
ber that in the adolescent stage both unconscious and 
conscious imitation are powerful factors in develop- 
ment ! Well-modulated utterance, distinct enunciation. 



62 THE AMERICAN SECONDARY SCHOOL 

definiteness in the information we impart should make 
their impression, and stimulate to similar effort. The 
kind of discipline that these qualities insure operates 
by indirect means, by agencies that the pupils do not 
recognize as disciplinary ; their effectiveness has long 
since been recognized in our elementary schools, where 
they have largely replaced restrictive measures of dis- 
cipline. There is in reason nothing to condone the lais- 
sez-aller policy in matters of indirect discipline which 
has taken possession of many of our secondary schools. 
Are habits of good training, which manifest themselves 
in distinct utterance, in neatness of copy books, of note- 
books, of mathematical exercises, less desirable in the 
advanced stage than in the elementary school, less val- 
uable for effective service in life ? It would almost seem 
that we have come to include the demand for precision 
and order among the uncongenial tasks on which the ado- 
lescent is privileged to exercise the freedom of election. 
The havoc that has been wrought by the outcry against 
the uncongenial task cannot be measured. 

We are approaching dangerously at times the limit 
when every task is considered uncongenial ; it is fair to 
say that in every study, in every performance of a definite 
duty there are broad stretches that do not appear attrac- 
tive ; shall we permit their elimination because the un- 
trained mind of the pupil fails to recognize their ultimate 
value ? It is but a natural development of this concession 



THE TEACHER 63 

to find our teachers, too, clamoring to be assigned to none 
but congenial tasks ; it is because of this feeling that 
the ill-trained teacher spurns the beginnings of a study 
and prefers the assignment to higher classes, in which 
he is foredoomed to ill success, because he has never 
presented the rudiments properly. It is mortifying to 
have our great educational bodies commit themselves 
to false doctrine, the weakness of which the educated 
layman can puncture. 

The teacher whose whole attitude before his class 
is virile, creates in his pupils recognition of his ability 
to control, and no sensible teacher will deem it wise to 
forego his central position of control ; abdication of 
authority, if actually carried out, is fatal to school 
organization. There is distinct merit in various schemes 
of so-called self-government of the student body, in so 
far as they arouse to a keener sense of responsibility 
the immature tendencies of the pupils. As a training 
to self-respect, to respectful consideration of the rights 
of others, to appreciation above all else of the signifi- 
cance of duty, the creation of student councils has much 
to commend it. Because their appeal to their fellow 
students is based on the relation of peer to peer, their 
cooperation with the school administration will under 
wise guidance obviate the constant display of authority.^ 

1 Burstall, English High Schools for Girls, p. 148. Longmans & Co., 
1907. 



64 THE AMERICAN SECONDARY SCHOOL 

Guidance, however, there must be ; and the principal 
who does not reserve to himself the decisive voice in 
great questions of school policy is recreant to his trust. 
One of our most successful high school principals in 
New York City assigns many details of school disci- 
pline, school organizations, arrangement and character 
of the public exercises of the school, to committees of 
the pupils, cultivates in them the power of efficient per- 
formance, eliminates apparently himself and his teachers 
from constant and open leadership, — but remains all 
the more the constantly controlling, inspiring influence. 
We are imposing an unrighteous strain upon these 
young people, if they cannot turn in their dilemmas to 
the counsels of experience for guidance. 

Once more there applies what cannot be too strongly 
emphasized — training to judgment is the great function 
of the secondary school ; that involves careful, competent 
direction. Judgment, discretion, are matters of gradual 
acquisition, and premature responsibilities often mean a 
wreck of promising abilities. The qualifications of the 
teacher manifest themselves as potently in his attitude 
toward these questions as in the construction of school 
programs and curricula. Firmness and consistency, tem- 
pered by kindliness and sympathy, the management of a 
secondary school organization needs. More even than 
the elementary school pupil, the adolescent must^Be awak- 
ened to the conviction that his interests must coalesce with 



THE TEACHER 65 

those of others, but not dominate them ; the school, to 
function properly, cannot yield to individualism running 
riot. Of the virile teacher, however, and it is he only who 
is equal to the great responsibilities of his task, it may 
fairly be demanded that he employ methods of discipline 
appropriate to the nascent maturity of his charges. 

Our American system differs at this point very dis- 
tinctly, and in very wholesome fashion, from systems 
abroad ; we lay stress on positive rather than negative 
methods of discipline. Our efforts are constantly direct- 
ed to make our school training an encouragement to good 
habits ; the positive, constructive side of our disciplinary 
problem is in the foreground. No more striking illustra- 
tion of this divergence in spirit between our educational 
doctrine and that of Germany exists than is afforded in 
the encyclopedic summaries of educational questions. 
Encyclopedias of education, like Rein^ and Loos,^ 
abound in exhaustive discussions of the delinquencies 
of school children ; they are analyzed, traced to their 
origins, set forth in their various manifestations ; the 
restrictive and corrective processes desirable to combat 
them, the methods and forms of punishment are inves- 
tigated. Their ulterior purpose is undoubtedly identical 

1 Rein, W., Encyklopaiisckes Handbttch der Padagogik, 2d ed., 
10 vols. Langensalza, 1904. 

* Loos, Jos., Encyklop'ddisches Handbuch der Ej-ziehu7igsku7tde, 
2 vols. Vienna, 1906-1908. 



66 THE AMERICAN SECONDARY SCHOOL 

with ours, to substitute for perverse and objectionable 
tendencies those that lead through self-control and grow- 
ing self-respect to ready acceptance of expert guidance, to 
methodical and accurate performance. Our method of 
approach is more in sympathy with the tendency to a gen- 
erous uplift, and we would not, even if we could, abandon 
it. We regard it as the teacher's privilege, seeing that he 
is the more mature, the more experienced person, to fore- 
stall delinquency, insubordination, rather than sit in judg- 
ment when wrongdoing becomes apparent. An opti- 
mistic attitude toward the young it is the duty' of the 
teacher to cultivate ; the American school teacher has 
fortunately abandoned the Rhadamanthine frame of 
mind. Firmness in control, the maintenance of dignity 
and authority must not be sacrificed, but it is well to act 
on the belief that violations of school discipline are in 
the main due to carelessness, to the irresponsibility of 
youth. In this respect the saving grace of humor is 
one of the teacher's most precious assets ; more than 
any other quality it marks the possession of a broadly 
humane spirit ; it irradiates the seriousness of the class 
exercise.^ 

If we believe in the efficacy of education as a leaven 
of good breeding, of gentle manners, and appreciate the 
value of habit, we as teachers must substantiate our 

1 Colvin, Stephen S., " The Educational Value of Humor," Pedagogical 
Seminary, XIV, pp. 517-524. 



THE TEACHER 67 

belief by the practice of all the arts that will make the 
schoolroom the center of decorous, animated coopera- 
tion in the object for which we strive. Our pupils 
appreciate sympathy that is not maudlin, affection that 
does not degenerate into favoritism, confidence that calls 
forth the very best efforts to which the pupil can rise ; 
they realize the worth of the teacher's conscientious 
endeavor to attune his requirements to individual peculi- 
arities. Intuitively they recognize the meaning of the 
teacher's discriminating judgments ; they know when 
these judgments are the outcome of a painstaking study 
of individuality in certain pupils,^ and they distinguish 
them from unwise partisanship. 

The aim of discipUne should be to establish class con- 
ditions that will secure full value from good methods of 
instruction. That is a superficial discipline whose char- 
acteristics are supposed to be achieved when the ex- 
ternal evidences of order and attention are established, 
when the physical attitude of pupils seems to indicate 
concentration on the duty of the hour. But we all 
know how delusive is this apparent attention ; below 
this semblance of correct bearing may lurk any amount 
of mental absenteeism, and the temptation to feign at- 
tention whilst the mind goes a-wandering, seems to 

1 An interesting German study of pupil individuality is contained 
in Brinkmann, E., Uber Individualitatsbilder {Sckulercharakteristiken). 
Gotha, 1892. 



68 THE AMERICAN SECONDARY SCHOOL 

thrive on this acceptance of the outward signs of con- 
formity. If teachers would but reaHze that they are 
largely responsible by their very insistence on these ex- 
ternals for the habit of divided attention which is the 
most serious drawback in the classroom. John Dewey 
says : ^ — 

" I do not see how any one at all familiar with the 
great mass of existing school work can deny that the 
greater part of the pupils are gradually forming habits 
of divided attention. If the teacher is skillful and wide- 
awake, if she is what is termed a good disciplinarian, 
the child will indeed learn to keep his senses intent in 
certain ways, but he will also learn to direct the fruitful 
imagery, which constitutes the value of what is before 
his senses, in totally other directions. It would not be 
wholly palatable to have to face the actual psychologi- 
cal condition of the majority of the pupils that leave 
our schools. We should find this division of attention 
and the resulting disintegration so great that we might 
cease teaching in sheer disgust. None the less, it is 
well for us to recognize that this state of thing exists, 
and that it is the inevitable outcome of those conditions 
which require the simulation of attention without re- 
quiring its essence." 

The old-time indications of the rigid position of every 

1 Dewey, John, " Interest in Relation to Training the Will," Second 
Herhart Yearbook, 1895, pp. 9-11. 



THE TEACHER 69 

class member, of rhythmic uniformity in response, do 
not constitute the soul of attention. Genuine discipline 
may be less formal, less effective externally, but it 
strives for the substance, rather than the outward mani- 
festation. It cannot be indifferent to the necessity of 
correct bearing, of prompt responsiveness, of specific 
attention to duty ; it secures habits of precision, be- 
cause it realizes their value, by superior generalship, 
not by official proclamation ; but it regards all of these 
as the substructure merely, to be built upon, to be de- 
pended upon. The interest aroused by the teacher in 
his subject, partly by his own manner and his person- 
ality, partly by the disclosure of its manifold relation- 
ships, its connotation, will do away with many of the 
ills of formal discipline. Violations of discipline, largely 
due to lack of interest in the teacher and in his subject, 
become less frequent, less attractive to a class whose 
native desire to know and to do, the teacher has the art 
to captivate for the legitimate ends of concerted and 
individual effort. The demands upon the teacher as 
initiator of new processes of thought are vastly more 
absorbing than under the older methods of discipline, 
but he finds compensation in the genuineness of re- 
sponse. 

The virility of the teacher, however, as has already 
been indicated in the preceding pages, implies some- 
thing more than physical energy — it cannot be sep- 



70 THE AMERICAN SECONDARY SCHOOL 

arated from the possession of certain moral qualifica- 
tions through which educational influence is palpably 
exerted. The maturing boy and girl, striving to fill 
acceptably a place in the social organism, are prone 
to pattern their behavior, their performance, on models 
that their daily contact brings prominently before them. 
The types of conduct that the elders of their family 
circle, their parents or their kindred, reveal, provide ex- 
amples for imitation and emulation ; but the model is 
drawn from a narrow sphere, one that to the child stands 
apart from the great outside world. What are the 
standards of this outside world whose measure it means 
to take ? It may duplicate the performance of its peers, 
but they like itself have not met the brunt of actual life. 
The teacher is, of the adults outside of the family, 
the one in whom it has occasion to observe most con- 
tinuously the relation of ideals to performance ; his 
specific mission, as the pupil sees it, is the advancement 
of the latter's capacities. How in the performance of 
this specific task does he reveal himself ? Is he simply 
a purveyor of information, or does he represent in him- 
self the flowering of intelligence into character ? He 
tells his pupils of ideals, of the value of knowledge, of 
the service of the well-informed man to a society that 
needs his aid ; by precept and illustration he impresses 
upon them the part that self-control, unselfishness, loy- 
alty, gentle manners, energy, and initiative play in the 



THE TEACHER 7 1 

record of human performance. Does he exemplify in 
himself what he predicates as the desirable attainment ? 
Is he self-contained, true, just, persistent, cheerful in 
the performance of his duty ? Does he actually culti- 
vate ideals, is he self-sacrificing, loyal to his calling ? 
Is he at once firm and humane in regard to his own 
duties, and appreciative of sincere endeavor ? ^ The 
emphasis with which the teacher presents his ideals of 
conduct and attainment invite the application by the 
pupil of severe criteria of judgment; what the teacher 
so convincingly discusses must have developed convic- 
tion in him. And so, more than by what he preaches, 
the secondary teacher influences by what he does, by 
what he is. 

Without the power of analyzing the reasons of their 
own judgments, our pupils apply unconsciously, but 
passionately, standards of their own to our perform- 
ances. Does our manner in the classroom, our habit 
of speech correspond to the ideal to which we try 
to stimulate them .-' We inculcate tactfulness in the 
relations of life ; do our own lives evidence generous 
deference, loyalty, innate courtesy toward our colleagues 
and our superiors ? The careless word, the flippant 
comment, the querulous sigh are significant and danger- 
ous revelations of the teacher's inner self to his pupils. 

1 Benson, Arthur C, The Upton Letters, pp. 32, 34, 42, 52. Putnam, 
1906. 



72 THE AMERICAN SECONDARY SCHOOL 

Our ideals may not be fully understood by youth, our 
frailties, however, they easily fathom. It follows that 
glaring discrepancies between the teacher's utterances 
on morals and conduct ex cathedra, and his incidental 
revelation of self are most unfortunate in their influ- 
ence on the adolescent; coming at a time when the 
young soul is particularly susceptible and is ready to pat- 
tern itself upon lives, harmonious in their consistency, 
the influence of the secondary teacher may transcend in 
its consequences all other external forces. The gravity 
of the situation is indeed critical, and affects powerfully 
a question that is at the present day constantly dis- 
cussed — that of moral instruction versus moral training. 
We are all agreed as to the desirability of morally 
influencing our young people in and through the 
school; it is freely admitted that the home which 
should be by its nature the fountainhead of moral 
training, is increasingly inclined to delegate to the 
school a duty which it often finds itself incapable of 
performing, whether from lack of time (!), of inchna- 
tion, or of sufficient intelligence. What shall the school 
do in the face of this added responsibility .? It ought to 
intrust work of this most delicate nature, that goes 
more than aught else to the making of the perfect man 
or woman, to none but those who have given proof of 
their appropriateness for the task. But how are we to 
determine such fitness } We know how to test after a 



THE TEACHER 73 

fashion capacity to convey the subject matter of geog- 
raphy, algebra, Latin, to young minds ; but what is the 
subject matter involved in moral teaching, and how 
prove our ability to teach it ? Will competitive exami- 
nation-tests answer ? Are there elementary and ad- 
vanced courses of moral instruction, for some of which 
our teachers are qualified, and not for others ? Does 
even a high personal moral standard insure a judicious 
inculcation of the same standard in others ? Is it, in a 
word, wise to make moral instruction (ethical instruc- 
tion is often used as a designation to differentiate 
it from religious instruction) a specific subject of the 
curriculum, to be developed by chapter and paragraph, 
with specially prepared text, commentary, and illustra- 
tion ? There is a well-founded reluctance among the 
best educators against moral instruction as a subject in 
the curriculum. The delicacy of the problem, the dan- 
ger of vulgarizing things moral by elaborate processes 
of dissection and analysis into their component parts, 
of a possibly mechanical acceptance of nice distinctions, 
of a lip service by teachers whose souls are not in true 
sympathy with the course, these and similar consid- 
erations are urged against formal moral instruction. 
France furnishes a notable example of the fatuity of 
such a discipline. It has banished religious instruction 
from its national schools, and, feeling the need of an 
official substitute, has introduced a code of officially 



74 THE AMERICAN SECONDARY SCHOOL 

prepared lessons, instruction in which it is compulsory 
upon the teachers to give, upon the pupils to receive. 
Remembering that it is enjoined upon a generation of 
teachers, many of whom are by conviction hostile to it, 
we can well imagine what degree of sincerity charac- 
terizes its presentation. An official pronouncement on 
the moral code, with official elaboration of a text at- 
tached to specifically prepared illustrative material, and 
culminating in prescribed proverbs or verse groups to 
clinch the general exposition — this it is according to 
French ideas to develop moral standards in the young. 

The official statement of the Minister of Public Instruc- 
tion prescribes that the course of Practical Ethics is to 
consist of " systematic readings, recitations, and talks 
planned to strengthen sentiment favorable to moral de- 
velopment and to counteract opposite tendencies." ^ 

M. Croiset's words below express distinctly what the 
school can undertake as moral training in contrast to 
moral instruction. Moral training of this kind has 
never been wholly absent from the school ; from the 
days of Plato on, in the teachings of the great school- 
masters of the Renaissance and the Reformation, 
in the motives that impelled the Prussian schools 

1 Cf. Farrington, French Secondary Schools, pp. 298-300, and espe- 
cially the quotation from Croiset, Dean of the Sorbonne, that "the 
best lesson is perhaps that which occupies no fixed time in the school 
program, but which comes forth spontaneously, naively, from the very 
personality of the teacher and from all his words." 



THE TEACHER 75 

to develop both intellectual culture and the spiritual 
gifts of youth " rousing and nourishing every noble 
principle of life," everywhere there is a recognition of 
the twofold mission of the teacher; he shapes his 
pupils by what he knows, by what he is. 

Stronger than any specific moral deductions, than any 
rules of conduct drawn from the subject matter of the 
classroom, from the contingencies of the school organism, 
there are at work the influences that emanate from the 
teacher's bearing, from his unconscious revelation of self 
in speech and action. It is not desirable to gird oneself 
for the inculcation of moral ideals at certain hours and 
in certain subjects ; the opportunities for ethical judg- 
ments, for the establishment of a strong moral influence 
are no more obvious in connection with the teaching of 
literature and history than with science and mathe- 
matics; they may issue from the experiences of the 
laboratory and the shop, the gymnasium and the school 
kitchen. The value of such opportunities lies in the 
freedom with which they are introduced ; the very 
unexpectedness of the connection established is apt to 
fix the impression. Let pupils suspect that the teacher 
regards history as the medium to which he can most 
readily attach moral reflections, and they will develop a 
justifiable distaste for the subject, justifiable because the 
pupils realize that the ostensible pursuit of the subject 
subserves another and remoter end. 



76 THE AMERICAN SECONDARY SCHOOL 

Truth, honesty, self-control, obedience to a higher law, 
unselfishness, a sense of duty, these and whatever other 
qualities reflect the spirit of morality are as powerfully im- 
pressed by the force of example, by the implicit procedure 
in the corporate life of the school, which the thoughtful 
teacher constantly molds, as by explicit moral disquisi- 
tion ; the spontaneous character of the moral deduction, 
its incidental appropriateness, gives it its strength. 
And some of the most lasting impressions, we may be 
sure, are conveyed when we desist from the tempting 
occasion for moral inferences, and allow a given impulse 
to work itself out unaided in the consciousness of the 
pupil ; is it not what our great literary artists are con- 
stantly doing ? Is it not the highest type of moral 
teaching when they invite the reader to penetrate 
through the outer garb of incident and narrative to the 
profounder moral truth that underlies, a truth that they 
refrain from formulating in so many words ? There is 
something grossly repellant to me in the very wording 
of the argument for direct moral instruction that it is 
the business of the moral instructor in the public school 
to deliver to his pupils the subject matter of morality!^ 

1 1. Myers, " Moral Training in the School," Pedagogical Seminary, 
XIII, pp. 409-460. 

2. Sadler, Sir Michael, Moral Instruction afid T7-ai?iing in Schools^ 

2 vols. Longmans. 

3. Moral Trainingin the Public Schools, five California prize essays ; 

especially the essay of Mr. Rugh, p. 8 et passim. Ginn & Co., 
1907. 



THE TEACHER 77 

What a responsibility, what a danger ! The path of 
safety, of wisdom, and of modesty on the part of the teacher 
is distinctly outlined in a series of notable utterances to 
which attention is here called at some length because of 
the momentousness of the subject. In his " Imitation in 
Education " (Columbia contributions to Philosophy, 
vol. 8), Mr. Jasper Newton Deahl says, p. 71 : " There is 
a vitalizing force in example, not found in prec-ept; in 
the facihty with which example may be used, lies its 
superior value." 

William James, Talks to Teachers^ p. 217: "Uncon- 
scious as are our routine performances in life which yet 
reveal our innermost character, so they act uncon- 
sciously in forming the moral character of the pupil." 

Professor Palmer of Harvard, Forum, XIV, p. 873 : 
" The attempt to secure morality by instruction is not 
only futile but pernicious ; behavior can no more be 
taught by rule than can correct speech." 

In a chapter on " Direct Moral Teaching " (in vol. X 
of Eng. Spec. Reports) the writer, Mr. H. Thiselton 
Mark, quotes from a lecture of Dr. Nicholas Murray 
Butler : "As to the demand for more moral teaching of 
the formal, didactic, specific kind, there was in his judg- 
ment no greater waste of time in schools than this ; be- 
cause this sort of instruction, if anything is to be made of 
it, involves a prepared habit of mind which is beyond the 
capacity of children still at school." That this formal 



78 THE AMERICAN SECONDARY SCHOOL 

method tends to breed intellectual dishonesty, a tend- 
ency in pupils to say what they think their teachers ex- 
pect them to say, is a danger apparent even to an 
otherwise sympathetic observer; Mr. Mark (p. 117 
above), speaking of such conscious moral instruction, 
notes the criticism : " It is apt to conduce somewhat to 
a new element of illiberalism in education ; " certainly, 
one can regard with more equanimity the mechanical 
repetition of an acquired terminology in grammar or 
mathematics than an acquired series of stock phrases 
on questions of moral import. 

Gilbert, Educational Review, February, 1902, pp. 136 
ff ., says : " Narrow special training in morals is danger- 
ous : it magnifies conventionality and too often makes 
glib self-satisfied hypocrites and judges of others. It 
needs to be seasoned with salt." 

Against the practical outcome of this method one 
cannot protest too energetically. To treat a fairy story, 
a fable with the distinct purpose of making explicit 
what is impHcit in it, is to pervert one of the most 
valuable outgrowths of human phantasy to the purely 
didactic point of view ; it reminds one of the distorted 
image of the ^Esopian fable in the wig-and-powder con- 
ventionality of Lafontaine which attaches its banal 
morality to this masquerade of French statesmen, 
monarchs, and dainty ladies in the guise of an animal 
world. When emotional experience is compelled or 



THE TEACHER 79 

directed, no room is left for spontaneous emotion of the 
pupil ; it is inevitable that with such a method the fable, 
the story, even the historical episode, will be chosen be- 
cause of its aptitude for the purpose in hand. But 
" history," says a German writer, " is not a collection of 
examples to bolster up our moral tenets ; that degrades 
history to the rank of a picture book." ^ 

The school itself in its daily routine, in the relation 
of pupil to teacher, of pupil to fellow pupil, and to the 
demands of the larger social organization, in the re- 
sponsibility of the pupil to his own higher self, affords 
ample occasion for the awakening and strengthening of 
the moral sense. There cannot be formulated in a set 
of hard and fast lines, what particular phases of the 
moral code can be attached to the one or the other 
subject of the curriculum. It is pedantry to associate 
conceptions of order, neatness, accuracy, persistence 
with the teaching of mathematics, and the doctrines of 
altruism, of deference, of obedience, of self-control with 
the studies in the literary and historical group ; an in- 
cident of the classroom may suffice to fill the individual 
occurrence with a larger meaning, and to substitute for 
the unconsidered, involuntary reaction a reasoned moral 
conviction. 

The Terentian " Homo sura : nihil humani a me 

1 Cf. a noteworthy contribution to this subject, full of striking 
thought, by President Faunce, Educational Review, April, 1903, 



8o THE AMERICAN SECONDARY SCHOOL 

alienum puto," rather than any code or organized line 
of procedure, constitutes the basis of the teacher's 
moral influence. What he is, he infuses into his teach- 
ing. One cannot be manly, loyal, patient, untiring in 
effort, susceptible to ideals — and a teacher — without 
experiencing the overwhelming impulse to foster the 
same tendencies in one's pupils ; an isolation of one's 
own aspirations that would exclude the possibility of 
their reproduction in the pupil is absolutely incongru- 
ous in a teacher ; what Palmer ^ in his essay. The Ideal 
Teacher, describes as the elimination of one's personal- 
ity, the readiness to be forgotten, is the fate, and the 
joy, of the teacher. It is not, as often in the case of 
the parent, an instinctive tendency, but a plan based on 
moral insight that shapes the teacher's efforts towards 
the efficiency in character of his pupils, and he is 
triumphant when his guidance has resulted in the 
achievement of a self-control that gives assurance of 
persistence, long after his guiding hand has been with- 
drawn ; to live in the lives of one's pupils is the ulti- 
mate test of a teacher's influence. 

Rules, formulas, wise saws will not help to shape 
moral conduct ; the knowledge of what is right does not 

1 Palmer, George H., The Teacher, pp. 26 ff. Boston, 1908. " A teacher 
does not live for himself, but for his pupil and the truth which he im- 
parts." Cf. HoUister, Horace A., High School Administration (chap. 
XVI, Moral and Religious Training, with bibliography). D. C. Heath 
& Co., 1909. 



THE TEACHER 8 1 

make right attractive. Conveyed as a discipline, the 
principles of moral conduct will evoke little response. 
The intangible, indefinable combination of qualities that 
produce an harmonious personality, if this does not im- 
press the young, then no theoretic exposition of moral 
doctrine will exert the slightest influence. 

It has been urged that if moral training confined itself 
to the formation of habits, which the pupil saw illustrated 
in the conduct of his teachers, it would occupy an inferior 
position in the scheme of the pupil's development, for 
as a merely imitative process, it would attach itself to 
concrete performances of the teacher, and the pupil 
would be at a loss how to act when his model had not 
furnished a concrete illustration. No sensible teacher, 
however, would be content with ethical standards, based 
merely on habit ; the appeal to the intelligence must be 
made, if broader views for the conduct of life are to 
be created. The all-important point is that the pupil 
will respond to this appeal only if he finds consonance 
between maxim and conduct in the daily life of his 
teacher. Your pupil is much more likely to accept on 
faith the teacher's statement on any fact of Latin acci- 
dence, or on Avogadro's law than on any principle of 
moral conduct; he applies the argumentwn ad homi- 
nem, and doubts the value of moral doctrine that has 
not touched the life of its present advocate. 

It is the definiteness of prescription affecting alike 



82 THE AMERICAN SECONDARY SCHOOL 

the spirit and the letter of the requirement, to which 
thoughtful educators object. Formulation of the prin- 
ciples of conduct, according to the French system, is 
only to a degree less objectionable than the promulga- 
tion of a code of religious instruction such as is pre- 
scribed for the German schools. From our point of 
view, the requirement in religious teaching, as outlined 
in the Lehrpldne und Lehraufgaben (curricula and pro- 
grams of work) of the German higher schools, has 
been the vulnerable point in their school system. It 
has been the topic through which the church still 
maintains its hold upon the state organization of the 
schools ; a close study of the character of the prescrip- 
tion shows a greater or diminishing stringency in inter- 
pretation according to the fluctuations between various 
degrees of religious conservatism. 

Stringent, however, the requirement always is, even at 
its best. Inasmuch as it compels the teacher to become 
the official propounder of a definite attitude on religious 
questions, whatever otherwise his personal tendencies and 
convictions may be, it has worked distinct harm ; in an 
age of increasing critical spirit with respect to all dogma, 
it has compelled the teacher to constitute himself the 
exponent of a conservative dogmatism, to proclaim as 
his own belief doctrine which, as a man and not as a 
teacher, he may not freely accept. No wonder that the 
charge of hypocrisy is raised against much of this 



THE TEACHER 83 

teaching, unless refuge is sought by the teacher in a 
soulless, outward conformity which cannot impress, be- 
cause it resorts to subterfuges of interpretation. 

"The man," says Dr. Reinhardt, "whose heart is 
cold spreads chilly indifference around him. Even re- 
ligion, that tenderest and finest subject of instruction, 
can be so handled by an unskillful teacher as to be- 
come hurtful rather than profitable." ^ And how much 
more serious the harm, if he lacks genuineness. And 
yet the Notes on Method in the Lehrpldne impress upon 
the teachers that " the primary condition of success lies 
in the living personality of the teacher and in his 
S'^Q'akmg out of the fuhiess of his heart "^ The fetters 
thus imposed upon the teacher have weakened in many 
cases his general influence in homes where sincerity 
and manly outspoken conviction are prized above all, 
and it has led in some parts of Germany, on the part of 
teachers, to organized protest against doctrinal dictation 
imposed upon them. A significant document of this 
kind is Religions-unterricht, edited by Fritz Gansberg, 
Leipzig, 1906, 2ipro memoria of the teachers of Bremen, 
fortified by expressions of lay opinion from leaders of 
thought in various vocations. 

1 For entire quotation cf. Engl. Spec. Reports, III, p. 102. 

2 Cf. Paulsen, Allgemeine Gnmdlagen der Kultur der Gegenwart,'^,i'h. 
Teubner, 1906; Paulsen, Geschichte des Gelekrten Unterrichts, II, 
pp. 503-506; Engl. Spec. Reports, III, pp. 262-265 (translation of 
Lehrpldne). 



84 THE AMERICAN SECONDARY SCHOOL 

That " the teacher is the school " holds, then, above 
all in the matter of his moral influence on the pupil; 
his personality, his distinctions of right and wrong, his 
sensitiveness as to standards of action, react inevitably 
somehow on his pupils, however unresponsive they may 
be. No type of moral education, whether it be under- 
taken in the form of instruction or of training, can dis- 
place the effect of the teacher's own moral standards. 

To sum up, in our advocacy of a higher type of 
teacher we have in mind the need of teachers, superior 
in intellectual equipment, in physical poise, and in 
strength of moral character. How to secure them, how 
to recognize them, how to encourage their accession in 
increasing numbers to the profession, is the problem of 
the American secondary school. 



PART II 

CHAPTER I 
The Present Status of the Public High School 

The historical development of the secondary school 
in the United States has been satisfactorily traced from 
its earliest appearance to its present status in Ex- 
Commissioner Brown's (Elmer E. Brown) The Making 
of our Middle Schools ; to this work, therefore, and its 
detailed treatment students of this line of inquiry are 
referred. A brief resum6 of its argument may be 
found in various recent treatises, among them in Chap- 
ter I of J. F, Brown's The American High School (The 
Macmillan Company, 1909). 

It will suffice, therefore, to recall that the Latin 
grammar school of the early Colonial days has passed 
out of existence, that the academy, offering at first a 
wider range of subjects than the Latin school, a range 
calculated to furnish practical preparation for life, has 
in the last half century concentrated its efforts upon 
those studies that constitute college preparation, and 
that the field of secondary instruction in its fullest 
sense is to-day the province of the free pubUc high 

85 



86 THE AMERICAN SECONDARY SCHOOL 

school. The last mentioned type of school was not 
intended from its inception as a surrogate for the pri- 
vate or endowed preparatory school, but rather as a 
superstructure to the public elementary school, " to 
render the present system of public education more 
nearly perfect." ^ It was intended that it should re- 
semble in its practical tendencies the early academy, 
with similar cultural aims, but it was to be controlled by 
representatives of the communities that bore the ex- 
pense and offered its opportunities free to those who 
had completed the public grammar schools. 

Several causes, prominent among them (i) the ambi- 
tions of most communities to make their public high 
school an effective avenue of approach to the colleges, and 
(2) the lack of definiteness in the arrangement and se- 
quence of the so-called cultural courses, taken together 
with the very definite demands of the colleges, con- 
spired to make the college preparatory course the 
standard of attainment, the measure of efficiency, in the 
public high school. We all recognize the controlling 
force of a definite goal ; to most teachers it was a com- 
fort to realize in exact terms the terminus ad quern; 
therein lay for a long period the dominating advantage 

1 1. Report of Boston School Commission of 1821 ; cf. E. E. Brown, 
pp. 298 ff. 
2. H. H. Morgan, « The Justification of the Public High School," 
I, p. 629, Report of Commissioner of Education, 1889. 



PRESENT STATUS OF THE PUBLIC HIGH SCHOOL 87 

of the college entrance demand. It is a repetition of 
the familiar experience that there is every advantage in 
a small, but well-organized body of troops as against a 
host of unorganized militia. A little reflection will con- 
vince us that our difficulties lie not so much in the 
choice of subjects as in the manner of handling them. 
The supreme desire of teachers to measure the attain- 
ments of their pupils by the college requirements 
cramps and narrows the teaching scope ; it lifts adjust- 
ment, adaptation, into prominence, it encourages the 
methods of the craftsman ; freedom in method is 
barred, artistic variation is discouraged as a useless or 
harmful departure from a standard requirement. The 
square peg forced into the round hole indicates the 
character of our prevailing secondary work. It was in 
the courses that were in no direct relation to college 
requirements that an active constructive policy was 
desirable ; they offered a far more delicate problem 
than the preparatory course, and tempted frequently to 
overzcalous advance into the field of untried experi- 
ment, with inevitable reaction when the experiment 
failed ; unquestionably a much wider portion of the 
community was concerned in these noncollegiate in- 
terests which were often debated by the community as 
a whole. Of the energy and earnestness of these dis- 
cussions there is no question, but they do not always 
display sound judgment. 



88 THE AMERICAN SECONDARY SCHOOL 

Despite the fact, then, that even to-day in many com- 
munities the public high school is valued primarily for its 
college preparatory course, there has been growing a con- 
viction that the conception of the secondary school in- 
volves a wider, a more generous outlook than that of the 
equipment of a small minority of the student body for the 
demands of the colleges. The work of the statistician has 
revealed to us that of the total number in attendance in 
our secondary schools an exceedingly small percentage 
enter college, a very considerable percentage have 
not intended to enter. The secondary school has not 
fulfilled its duty, unless it considers the needs of all 
who are ready to share in its opportunities. Its respon- 
sibility to the community, to the State as the aggregate 
of its citizens, requires that it shall provide for all in 
attendance the kind of instruction appropriate to their 
capacities and valuable for their future efficiency. 
The questions at issue must be determined by those 
most familiar with the tendencies and powers and 
limitations of adolescents, by the teachers, principals, 
superintendents of the secondary schools. 

The requirements by which fitness for the prosecution 
of college studies can be determined are very properly 
stipulated by college officers,^ and it is very natural and 

1 Even under the accrediting system they exercise this privilege of 
judgment in the first term of the Freshman year with students ac- 
cepted on certificate. In its suggestive new plan of entrance examin- 



PRESENT STATUS OF THE PUBLIC HIGH SCHOOL 89 

proper that in some form or other they will never forego 
the privilege of pronouncing judgment in this respect. 
But the question of satisfactory curricula for its several 
groups of studies must rest with the teachers of the sec- 
ondary school. It is idle to expect those whose activities 
are not primarily concerned with the secondary school 
to construct final and authoritative programs for this 
purpose. 

In the Report of the Committee of Ten/ pp. 51, 52, 
we find enunciated the sound doctrine : "A secondary 
school program intended for national use must be made 
for those children whose education is not to be pur- 
sued beyond the high school. The preparation of a 
few pupils for college or scientific school should in the 
ordinary secondary school be the incidental and not the 
principal, object." The statement, however, further on, 
that " the colleges and scientific schools of the country 
should accept for admission to appropriate courses of 
their instruction the attainments of any youth who 
has passed creditably through a good secondary school 
course " reflects the dominance of the college opportu- 
nity as an ideal. There is here an obvious incongruity ; 

ations Harvard, whilst it abrogates interference in the details of prep- 
aration at the secondary school, reserves to itself emphatically the 
right to pronounce upon the efficiency of the entering student for 
further study. {School Review, pp. 412 ff. June, 1910.) 

1 Published for the National Educational Association by the Ameri- 
can Book Company, 1894. 



go THE AMERICAN SECONDARY SCHOOL 

if the main consideration is to be directed upon pupils 
" whose education is not to be pursued beyond the high 
school" availability for college work ought not enter 
into the question of study programs. 

What kind of teaching is desirable for secondary pupils 
of the adolescent period ? In what subjects is our teach- 
ing force capable to carry out the best type of teaching ? 
These are, it seems to me, the two leading issues which 
secondary school men must meet in the interests of their 
schools. A revision of our secondary school methods 
ab ovo seems necessary; we are confronted by over- 
whelming testimony that we are not doing justice to the 
95 % of our students that do not continue into college, 
and that the 5 % who do go, give but an unsatisfactory 
account of themselves at entrance and beyond. Presi- 
dent Pritchett (Fifth Report, Carnegie Foundation, 
p. 64) has struck the keynote of our difficulties. " The 
high school student gains a superficial knowledge of 
many subjects and learns none with thoroughness. 
He lacks the hard fiber of intellectual discipline. . . . 
Education, rightly understood, is a power-producing 
process ; and the serious indictment against the sec- 
ondary school system to-day is that its graduates do 
not acquire either discipline or power ; • . . the ideal of 
thoroughness must supplant the ideal of superficiality." 
The average student " lacks both accuracy and the abil- 
ity to think" (p. 50). And again, "The total effect is 

/ 



PRESENT STATUS OE THE PUBLIC HIGH SCHOOL 9 1 

seen in the unreadiness of the great mass of youth to 
face a hard, steady pull." We must resist the unrea- 
soning popular demand that we ought " to teach some- 
thing of a great many things." 

The secondary school should work out an autonomy of 
its own ; it should not array itself in the tatters of a bor- 
rowed glory, and call itself a People's College ; that would 
only mean a cheapened college, attuned to the level of 
popular demands. Limiting itself to those subjects for 
which it has on its staff teachers of recognized ability, 
each high school should undertake to teach those subjects 
and those only ; a corollary of this proposition would be 
the elimination of all topics which the high school is really 
not prepared to teach. A firm adherence to this princi- 
ple would cause a wholesome, if painful, awakening in 
communities that clamor for the empty prestige of a 
high school, but are not prepared to pay for its satis- 
factory outfit in teachers and teaching equipment. 

It is intellectual fiber, intellectual ability, then, that 
the secondary teacher must aim to develop, not an illu- 
sory capacity of routine manipulation in one or several 
topics that are supposed to smooth the path to voca- 
tional opportunity ; it were well to bear in mind that 
the enslavement to a narrow utilitarian standard is at 
least as injurious as the current bitterness of complaint 
against college domination. A high school, located in 
an industrial community, that surrenders its cultural 



92 THE AMERICAN SECONDARY SCHOOL 

opportunities to the specific and immediate industrial 
demands of its surroundings, ought to reorganize as a 
trade school, preparing for the special industries that 
happen to be in vogue ; as though, forsooth, no other 
outlook of equal or greater promise existed for the effi- 
cient student of such a school ! 

The cry everywhere in the business as in the profes- 
sional world, is for discipline, for capacity to do intensive, 
hard work, for mental grasp. It is felt that this implies 
a type of instruction, intellectually thorough and severe ; 
industrial and professional supremacy must be based on 
efficiency in the schools ; a merely digital and manual 
dexterity must be guided by thought, if it is to attain to 
effectiveness. In his " Unrest in Secondary Education " 
(Engl. Spec. Reports, IX, 34), Sadler describes this type 
of instruction as concerted specialization, differentiating 
it from premature specialization, " The Germans know 
that in order to specialize to the best advantage, nine 
men out of ten need the equipment which is given by a 
good general education." 

Some of the subjects our high schools have intro- 
duced in deference to a vague popular demand may at 
some future time be so presented as to insure mental 
power rather than routine facility, but until then they 
cannot rank in educational value with subjects in which 
the experience of generations of teachers has developed 
the means of promoting disciplinary power. From this 



PRESENT STATUS OF THE PUBLIC HIGH SCHOOL 93 

Standpoint it was unwise, for instance, for the High 
School Teachers' Association of New York City, in 
May, 1 910, to demand the recognition by the colleges 
as distinct subjects of admission, of stenography and 
typewriting. The most ardent advocates of these two 
subjects cannot claim for them, as they are at present 
taught, such intellectual training, such expansion of in- 
tellectual interests, as mathematics, languages, science, 
stimulate. They are hardly more than ancillary in a 
commercial course in which geography, history, eco- 
nomics, commercial law would be the mentally, stimulat- 
ing subjects. As aforesaid, what is desirable from the 
point of utility may be included as subsidiary to subjects 
that require and promote mental power ; being largely 
mechanical accomplishments, they fulfill at a more ad- 
vanced stage about the same function that penmanship 
does in the elaboration of a course in English composi- 
tion. Whilst therefore these and other subjects may be 
included for specific reasons in some secondary school 
courses " to equip for a definite means of support," the 
burden of proof that they are calculated to advance 
mental grasp rests with their advocates ; their present 
teaching gives little promise of such a result. There 
is no unfairness in demanding such proof ; the teachers 
of science, of civics, of household science and art, of 
economics have successively been called upon to meet, 
and have met, the same demand. 



94 THE AMERICAN SECONDARY SCHOOL 

Sir Michael Sadler, Engl. Spec. Reports, IX, p. 140, 
takes this generous view of the best that American 
education stands for : " Among the best antidotes to 
materialism and selfishness in a commercial commu- 
nity are idealism and self-sacrifice in the schools. A 
businesslike idealism is the characteristic feature of 
American education at its best. This combination of 
two great qualities will protect the schools from the 
dangers of vulgar utilitarianism on the one hand, and 
from undue excitement, superficiality, and self-adver- 
tisement on the other." 

It cannot be stated too emphatically that it is the 
special province of the secondary school to carry its 
pupils beyond the mere consideration of the material 
needs of life to an appreciation of the cultural elements 
that give intellectual scope, intellectual power. To com- 
prehend in the main outlines the progress of the human 
family socially, morally, intellectually, is a prerequisite 
to our participation in its vital problems. It is, how- 
ever, not merely the acquisition of a new series of 
attainments that gives significance to the secondary 
school period; these should be but so many means to 
serve its main purpose. 

The awakening of a genuine desire for knowledge is 
of surpassing importance ; it prompts to the first serious 
exercise of the reasoning faculty. The student inclines 
to measure the bearing of the past attainments of the 



PRESENT STATUS OF THE PUBLIC HIGH SCHOOL 95 

human race upon present conditions ; it is here that 
training to judgment should find its place to accompany 
and dominate informational growth. Obsei"vation of the 
adolescent reveals a strong tendency to the formulation 
of judgments ; it is an accomplishment fraught with dan- 
ger, unless skillfully directed ; here it is the teacher's 
privilege to guide, though he will recognize the delicacy 
and difificulty of the duty. To insist, as some teachers 
and some textbooks do, at too early a stage in the sec- 
ondary school on creative criticism which, if it means 
anything, involves independent judgment, is distinctly 
injurious. 

Of the value of the training to judgment there can be 
no doubt; the more varied the topics in which it is 
applied, the better for the student. It may take the 
form of severely controlled reasoning along mathemati- 
cal lines, it may serve to differentiate hypothesis and 
general law, induction and deduction ; it should be a 
standing protest against unmeaning acceptance of re- 
ceived opinion ; it insures against hasty generalizations, 
makes the youth discriminating in passing upon ex- 
periences that lie outside the range of his studies ; its 
beneficent influence will reveal itself most obviously in 
written and spoken utterance. It is a discipline that 
makes for mental power. Upon such training depends 
largely the intellectual value of our high school work ; 
premature judgments are the accompaniments of super- 



g6 THE AMERICAN SECONDARY SCHOOL 

ficiality in the pupil who forms them, and in the teacher 
who permits or encourages them. It is a serious miscon- 
ception to assume that we can abate our watchful care 
of the maturing secondary student. We are planning to 
develop a finer, rarer product, and our concern for his 
auspicious growth must be intensified ; the ripest experi- 
ence, the most painstaking guidance are necessary if he is 
to blossom out into a well-balanced, independent thinker. 
In discussing the function of the secondary school, 
various authorities have unwittingly obscured its most 
vital duty by the suggestion of a number of collateral 
issues that are in effect a natural and logical outgrowth 
of the proper attention to its primal function. The rela- 
tion to the state and society, to the higher institutions of 
learning, to the pupil's own interests, will be satisfac- 
torily established, if the secondary school succeeds " by 
instruction and discipline to lay the foundations for that 
cultivation and inspiration that mark the truly educated 
man." ^ Let it be clearly understood that the intellectual 
side of education is by no means regarded as the only 
desirable end ; the influence of education on conduct, 
individual and communal, the estabhshment of civic 
consciousness, the need of fortifying moral standards in 
our pupils, are in like manner problems of the second- 
ary schools, but we are just now concentrating attention 

1 Butler, Nicholas Murray, Meaning of Ediicatiott, Macmillan, 1898, 
p. 160. 



PRESENT STATUS OF THE PUBLIC HIGH SCHOOL 97 

on the problem of advancing the intellectual status of 
the schools. 

No one who dispassionately passes in review our 
schools, our pupils, and our teachers, will for a mo- 
ment believe that in this country we are likely to 
suffer from an intellectual proletariat, the presence of 
which has disturbed some of the thinkers of Germany 
and France.^ The character of this instruction and the 
methods of discipline are naturally undergoing modifica- 
tion in each succeeding generation, but it is the part of 
unwisdom to introduce changes for change's sake. 
" One of the penalties of reform," says David Eugene 
Smith{Sc/wol Science and Mathematics, IX, pp. 629-631), 
" is a tendency to inefficiency " ; hence no reform should 
be introduced unless we can present with it sound, 
approved methods of procedure. A favorite plea of re- 
formers in educational matters is to claim for each in- 
novation that, more than the practice that it is intended 
to supplant, it is founded upon a truly philosophic con- 
cept ; is there not too frequent reference in such discus- 
sions to " the philosophic foundations of pedagogy " .'' 
Do not candor and caution rather urge us to an appre- 
ciation of Rudolf Lehmann's words : ^ "In our present 

1 Lagardelle, " Les Intellectuels devant le Socialisme," in Sadler, 
Unrest in Secondary Education, English Special Reports, IX, p. 30. 
London, 1902. 

2 Monatschrift fur h'ohere Scktilen, IV, p. 83. 

H 



98 THE AMERICAN SECONDARY SCHOOL 

state of knowledge we must admit that scientific investi- 
gation has not determined these philosophic foundations ; 
former ages believed that they had attained to this 
knowledge " ? 

A comparison with the prevailing secondary school 
systems of Germany and France will indicate certain 
fundamental differences, and may lead to the clearer 
recognition of our pecuUar difficulties. In all of these 
countries the secondary school is not a sequel to an 
eight-year course in the public elementary school, as 
with us; France, according to the official scheme pre- 
pared by the Superior Council of Public Instruction in 
1902, builds its secondary course upon a four-years' 
course of primary study ; the two courses, however, are 
not organically articulated ; they are not strictly speak- 
ing successive phases in the same educational procedure, ^ 
and the French secondary school is paralleling in ele- 
mentary schools of its own those of the actual primary 
school. In these classes it uses the same subject 
matter as the primary school ; there are, however, sHght 
differences in treatment owing largely to the character 
and preparation of the teaching corps. Hence the 
primary work in these preparatory classes of the sec- 
ondary school is distinctly coordinated with the regular 
secondary studies ; it is arranged to fit directly into the 

1 Farrington, French Secondary Schools^ pp. 86 and 126. Longmans, 
Green & Co., 1910. 



PRESENT STATUS OF THE PUBLIC HIGH SCHOOL 99 

secondary school, and may be said to be of the secondary 
type. 

A similar parallelism exists in Germany; for the 
first three years of the elementary school the German 
secondary school has its Vorschule ( preparatory classes) 
covering these three years. But the German school 
authorities are engaged in modifying the work of their 
elementary schools, so that the first three years of the 
course shall be a satisfactory substratum for the sec- 
ondary schools. It is their avowed purpose to do away 
eventually with the Vorschule of the secondary school;^ 
whether they will succeed or not remains to be seen. 
They may prohibit the creation of new Vorschulen, but 
it will be difficult to abolish those actually in existence. 

In each of these countries a much longer period is 
deemed necessary to accomplish the ends of secondary 
education than in the United States. Four years in 
France, three in Germany, seem to the educational ex- 
perts sufficient forthe fundamental acquisition of the tools 
of information, — reading, writing, some simple arith- 
metic in the elementary school, or its equivalent. Upon 
this foundation is built in France a secondary school 
system covering seven years, in Germany one of nine 
years; the authorities of both countries have mapped 

1 Rein, Tendencies in the Educational Systems of Germany (Special Re- 
ports on Educational Subjects, London, 1898, vol. 3, 452-457. Cf. Spe- 
cial Reports, London, 1902, vol. 9, 87). 



lOO THE AMERICAN SECONDARY SCHOOL 

out schemes of instruction appropriate to the attainment 
of their respective aims.^ In Germany this aim finds 
official expression in Lexis Das Unterrichtswesen itn 
Deutschen Reich, 1904, vol. II, 40: "It is the function 
of the secondary school to transmit to the pupils accord- 
ing to the stage of their mental advancement the general 
culture of the nation and of the age in which they live"; 
it assumes that in so doing the school will take cogni- 
zance of the changing currents in the intellectual life of 
the nation, — will adjust itself to new social needs. 

The work of the secondary school aims then to give a 
liberal education ; and to secure the intellectual efficiency 
of its students, it arranges that the teachers intrusted 
with this mission shall have ample time to develop the 
capacity of their pupils from the very foundations in the 
cultural subjects which they themselves lay, to a very 
advanced stage of attainment, such a stage as nine years 
(seven in France) of consecutive and coordinated teaching 
under the same guidance insure. The school is founded 
on the assumption that the gradual transition from 
childhood to adolescence, from the stage of mere recep- 
tiveness of elementary information to the first awaken- 
ings of reflective power, the indication of a nascent 
mental adolescence is made more efficient, if directed 

1 Couyba in Burstall, English High Schools, p. 218 : " La haute cul- 
ture qui peut-Stre un luxe pour I'individu, n'est pas un luxe pour la 
nation." 



PRESENT STATUS OF THE PUBLIC HIGH SCHOOL lOI 

by those who will continue to supervise its fuller ex- 
pansion. 

Whatever other features of the German and French 
school systems have at various times been open to criti- 
cism, no serious exception has been taken to the age of 
beginning the secondary school work. It goes without 
saying that the art of teaching must be at its best to 
make the foundation work both ample and sound.^ 

The quality of the teaching is the determining factor 
in the secondary school ; it is this that makes for a high 
level of average attainment ; the excellence of the teach- 
ing method is to secure effective reaction from every 
member of the class. Subjects and combinations of sub- 
jects will vary with the varying outlook of the several 
types of secondary school which are sharply differen- 
tiated and fixed in their educational policy, but through- 
out, the demands of quality are supreme ; that is, guar- 
anteed by the careful system of training of the teacher 
which precedes his first effort in the management 
of classes. Quality in teaching measures the character 
of the impulse, establishes the intellectual rebound.^ 

1 The official manual, Lehrplane imd Lehraufgaben, issued by the Prus- 
sian Ministry of Education for the guidance of teachers, reveals every- 
where the emphasis that attaches to the early stages of the work. Cf. 
Lehrplane tind Lehraufgaben for 1901, p. 21, on the method of teaching 
the vernacular. 

^Special Reports on Educational Subjects, vol. 3, 88 (Sadler) : — 
" Comparatively recent changes in the conditions of life have tended 
to make the more precise and highly differentiated results of systematic 



102 THE AMERICAN SECONDARY SCHOOL 

The logical consummation of this preeminence assigned 
to quality has been reached in Prussia in the imperial 
decree of November 26, 1900, which recognizes as 
" equivalent for general culture the intellectual training 
afforded by the three types of secondary schools, the 
Gymnasium, the Realgymnasium, and the Oberreal- 
schule," and adds, " by the fundamental recognition of 
this equivalence there is afforded the opportunity to 
emphasize more completely the characteristics of each of 
these types. It is in substance a recognition of the fact 
that a new definition of the cultured man is in order," ^ 
that a given intellectual standard may be reached along 
different lines of approach, that the quality of the intel- 
lectual reaction is paramount to the actual information 
acquired. Such a recognition presupposes, of course, 
parity in the quality of instruction in the various subjects ; 
the enthusiastic efforts of the science and modern lan- 
guage teachers have been directed for several decades 

school and academic training apparently more valuable, and certainly 
more indispensable, elements in national welfare. The vigoi'ous but 
usually imperfect results of self-education are finding themselves over- 
matched by the competition of highly specialized aptitudes skillfully 
combined with one another, subordinated into a single whole and ap- 
plied with the utmost economy in the expenditure of effort and material. 
It is really, in another form, the struggle between robust individualism 
and the collective effort of a disciplined multiude." 

1 President Eliot, " The New Definition of the Cultured Man." Presi- 
dential address before the N. E. A., 1903, reprinted in Science, July 17, 
1903, p. 77 ff. 



PRESENT STATUS OF THE PUBLIC HIGH SCHOOL I03 

to the demonstration of this equivalence in teaching 
methods. A similar result was reached in the reform 
program of the French Secondary Schools, based upon a 
comprehensive parliamentary inquiry in 1 899 ; ^ the 
courses in mathematics, in science, and the modern lan- 
guages are now recognized as equivalent in culture effi- 
ciency to the classical course. The French adhere 
wisely, no doubt, from the point of view of their ideals, 
to the humanistic ideal, and give a humanistic trend 
even to their science teaching.^ 

No more cardinal distinction exists between our sys- 
tem of gradation and that of the European schools, 
than in this initial point of difference. Our elementary 
school, with its course of eight years, is materially pro- 
longed beyond the period of acquisition of the rudiments ; 
we profess to embody in our grammar school work the 
foundations of general liberal knowledge, some history, 
some geography, some elementary science, but we pre- 
sent them to our pupils largely through the drill 
methods of the elementary school in which we persevere 
for too protracted a period. Insistence on formal repe- 
tition and drill with the specific textbook as the meas- 

1 Enquete sur I'enseignement secondaire, known generally as M. 
Ribot's commission. Cf. Compayre's report, Educational Review, 25, 
130-145. 

2Farrington, French Secondary Schools, p. 124, quotes from Couyba, 
Rapport du Budget general, 1907, p. 73 : " Scientific humanism has won 
the right of sitting side by side with literary humanism." 



104 THE AMERICAN SECONDARY SCHOOL 

ure of accuracy is appropriate to the very first years of 
school work ; it certainly is not in itself an incentive to 
initiative ; it neither encourages nor creates the capacity 
of generalization, of individual interpretation. 

We ought, in fact, to have two entirely different types 
of instruction in our elementary schools, for the first and 
the second four years ; only thus might the advanced 
studies of the grammar school lead over without break 
of continuity into the specific curricula of our high 
schools. We adhere too long to one and the same 
method, whereas the transition to a new mode of study 
could more readily be carried out when the mental 
habits of the child are still flexible; the ingrained 
habits of the elementary school, maintained into the 
fourteenth year and beyond, are with difficulty modified 
at so late a stage. We dwell rather too insistently on 
continuity, on our success in preventing school courses 
and school systems from overlapping. 

But there are two kinds of continuity, a superficial and 
a spiritual one ; the superficial one is attained all too 
easily by a mechanical adjustment in which the second- 
ary school follows upon the completion of the elemen- 
tary school; what I should call spiritual continuity 
involves a natural, almost unconscious transition from 
the mental experiences of the upper grammar school 
grades to those of the high school, undertaken under the 
guidance of the same type of mind that is to lead this 



PEESENT STATUS OF THE PUBLIC HIGH SCHOOL I05 

new faculty to a fuller development. This kind of con- 
tinuity, which would assure real economy of intellectual 
effort, we have not secured ; there exists a gap which no 
one has yet succeeded in bridging. With an abruptness 
and a rigor that is often disastrous the methods of the 
elementary school are brushed aside as worthless for the 
new experiences, and the secondary school is the sufferer, 
because in addition to a copious program of subject mat- 
ter, it is compelled to undertake the creation of a new 
method of study. The causes of this painful situation 
are to be found in the creation of the public high school 
at a later date, when the elementary school had already 
passed through a prolonged and independent develop- 
ment, and had attempted to appropriate a phase of 
intellectual insight that more properly belongs to the 
secondary school period. 

There does exist, then, an overlapping of the two 
phases of acquisition that is not beneficial to either. 
The difficulties encountered at the beginning of the 
secondary courses are frankly recognized as factors 
vital in their effect on the success of the secondary 
school work ; the pupils are expected to grapple with 
the content of the liberal subjects by a method totally 
different from that pursued in the elementary school. 
Initiation into the new method of approach requires 
patient and skillful guidance, for which, in the limited 
time allotment of our present secondary school no 



Io6 THE AMERICAN SECONDARY SCHOOL 

provision is made. It is absurd to assume that the 
adolescent pupil is as ready and competent to transform 
his method of study as to don a new suit of clothes. 

Two modes of remedying this difficulty have been 
advocated: one, the utilization of the seventh and 
eighth grades as a transitional stage toward the new 
experiences ; the other, the transference of the more 
capable students of these two grades into the high 
school, thus making the high school course one of six 
years instead of the traditional four. A closer consider- 
ation of the issues involved shows that these two meth- 
ods are not equivalent alternatives ; the former, though 
it has appealed to many because of its advocacy of " an 
enrichment of the elementary scheme," does not com- 
mend itself as the proper solution for a variety of reasons. 
Our elementary teachers do not as a result of their 
training and experience possess the ability to introduce 
properly the high school subjects; a satisfactory presen- 
tation of these subjects in their beginnings calls for 
a complete grasp of them along the whole line of 
secondary school development, and diluted or attenuated 
introductory courses that have been attempted, with the 
aid of similarly attenuated textbook guides, are distinctly 
detrimental. We should therefore need for such seventh 
and eighth grades, teachers of secondary school caliber 
who were ready to be debarred from the other privileges 
of secondary school work, content to contribute the 



PRESENT STATUS OF THE PUBLIC HIGH SCHOOL 107 

foundation work without opportunity to participate in 
its later development. 

In point of fact, the departmental system inaugurated 
for this purpose in the upper grades of the elementary 
school, or in intermediate schools, as these classes have 
been designated in some large cities, breaks with the 
system of the elementary school, and yet belongs to 
it. It rarely serves the purpose of introducing the 
subject matter of the secondary school ; it contents 
itself with the introduction of high school study 
methods, not of high school subject matter. To 
a certain degree it mitigates our present difficulties, 
though it fails in that it does not test the powers of youth 
by new lines of thought, and it does not contribute to 
the relief of the congestion in the high school program. 
Nor is it in fact desirable to abandon completely the 
seventh and eighth grades of our elementary schools. 
For pupils who cannot or will not enter upon high 
school work, these grades may become specially service- 
able, partly through the traditional reviews which even 
now fill so large a part of their scheme, partly through 
the opportunity afforded to relate the elementary sub- 
jects to vocational needs. In this arrangement there 
is neither an undue advocacy of the interests of the 
brighter pupils nor a slight to those intellectually infe- 
rior ; the latter will be benefited by an arrangement 
that will relieve them from being constantly yoked to 



I08 THE AMERICAN SECONDARY SCHOOL 

those of intenser mettle ; the sympathetic teacher who 
adapts his pace to their capacity for progress will often 
find them finally successful in their allotted work.^ As 
far back as 1871 and 1873, in the St. Louis School Reports, 
Dr. William T. Harris criticized in much of the prevail- 
ing theory of school management " a wholesale slaughter 
of the time and opportunity of well-disposed youth " ; ^ 
and the criticism does not appear obsolete to-day. 

At the close of the sixth grade the capable, ambitious 
American child is certainly as ready to take up some of 
the secondary subjects as European children do one or 
two years earlier, and it is distinctly not antagonistic to 
the democratic ideal to open the avenue into new lines 
of endeavor to those prepared to utilize them. A six- 
year high school course, linked to a six-year elementary 
course, is inevitable. The readjustment will, and should, 
involve a marked increase in public expenditure ; the 
apparent increase in burden of taxation will be more 
than offset by growth in school efficiency. Our present 
four-year high school, with its elaborate equipment for a 
rapidly diminishing body of students, is more extravagant 
than the average taxpayer realizes. Furthermore, a six- 

1 H. Thiselton Mark, Individuality in American Education, 1901, 
Longmans, p. 35 ff. 

* For an interesting contribution to the study of the interests of the 
bright pupils cf. Petzoldt, Sonderschulen fUr hervorragend Befdhigte, 
Teubner, 1905 ; unfeasible in practice, it is extremely suggestive in point- 
ing out the moral danger to the inadequately occupied bright pupil. 



PRESENT STATUS OF THE PUBLIC HIGH SCHOOL lOQ 

year high school course admits of partition into an up- 
per and lower high school (a junior or a senior high 
school) of three years each, so that commonwealths un- 
willing or unable to provide for the lengthened course 
may restrict themselves to provision for the lower high 
school. Incidentally this change would prove a means 
of decreasing the excessive number of inadequate high 
schools which try to carry a four years' schedule on in- 
sufficient financial support, with flagrant shortage in the 
numbers, salaries, and capacities of teachers.^ 

The contrast between the professions of performance, 
made for and by the great majority of the high schools, 
and their actual performance, may be gathered from the 
number of students they contribute to the entering 
college classes. The question of correlation between 
the high school and the colleges is not involved at this 
point ; the majority of high schools boldly assert their 
ability to equip their students for college entrance, but 
fail lamentably, owing to weak teaching. 

The principle of concentration, which has been so 
effective in the elementary school system of the country, 
and has substituted strong central schools for weak dis- 
trict schools in rural communities, might well be extended 
to the high schools ; a well organized two- or three-year 
high school is always preferable to a pretence of a four- 

1 Thorndike, E. L., " A Neglected Aspect of the American High 
School," Educational Review, March, 1907, 245-256. 



no THE AMERICAN SECONDARY SCHOOL 

year high school. It were often wise to temper vague 
ambitions, to rest content with what we are capable of 
doing ; legislation bearing on the creation of school 
organizations is often construed as mandatory where it 
is intended to be merely permissive. 

The object of the extended six-year high school course 
is to do effectively what has hitherto been accomplished 
inadequately and at a ruthless sacrifice of fair material. 
Two elements should dominate such a reorganization; 
the initiation into the new style of study should be made 
gradually, and the whole process of instruction should 
be at once thorough and rational ; for both requirements 
ample time is required. It cannot therefore be too 
emphatically urged that the purpose of the six-year high 
school is not to carry the instruction in subject matter at 
any point farther than the goal of the present high 
school, but to realize completely and satisfactorily what 
we have hitherto failed to accomplish. The new scheme 
should be a powerful incentive to the development of 
standards of thoroughness, of which we stand in sore 
need ; we might then insist on our pupils' real mastery 
of given subjects, rather than accept mere approximation 
to mastery. The student body in our colleges and pro- 
fessional schools would soon disclose an increased de- 
gree of efficiency, and one of the most marked criticisms 
of our educational scheme ought to disappear. 

To our teachers, the good as well as the mediocre, the 



PRESENT STATUS OF THE PUBLIC HIGH SCHOOL III 

increase in available time should prove a great gain ; there 
could be offered every inducement to develop the teach- 
ing faculty in the teacher, the power of thinking and rea- 
soning in the pupil. It should, in fact, lead to a complete 
remodeling of the method of teaching. It need hardly 
be said that the purpose of such an expansion would be 
defeated, if it led to a sluggishness of pace in our sec- 
ondary school work, not too rare under our present day 
conditions, or to a decline in the intensity of application 
of the student body. On the contrary, the change is 
advocated in the interest of intellectual vigor ; the ad- 
ditional time is not more than adequate to substitute 
precision, definiteness of attainment for hazy concepts 
that are prone to flourish under the influence of con- 
gested programs, and it is this that the advocates of the 
expanded course demand. 

" A vigorous system," says Harris (St. Louis School 
Reports, 1873, p. 135), "transmutes the pulpy sub- 
stance of impulse and inclination — the undisciplined 
will — into a self-controlled will, a directive intelligence, 
that can reenforce the moments by the hours, and 
accomplish something in the world. Most persons 
that I have known brought up under the laissez /aire 
system have seemed to lapse away in after life and 
recede from the promise that their school life gave, 
while the strong characters have emanated from the 
throng of those who were held to a strict responsi- 



112 THE AMERICAN SECONDARY SCHOOL 

bility in their school life." Compare with this the state- 
ment of President Pritchett (5th Annual Report Car- 
negie Foundation, 1910, p, 64) : " The real struggle in the 
American higher school is between that influence which 
makes toward thoroughness and that which makes to- 
ward superficiality ; and if the high school is to become 
the true training place of the people, the ideal of thor- 
oughness must supplant the ideal of superficiality." 

Fatal of course to the introduction of the six-year 
high school scheme would be the assumption that with 
this increase in the number of high school years the 
high school could blithely undertake the functions of 
the first two college years ; we cannot protest too ener- 
getically against such an endeavor, for it would again 
stimulate the substitution of superficiality for thorough- 
ness. If once it could be established that the work of 
the high school stage were being done too well, then 
there might be a pretext for this fatuous clamor.^ 

A detailed program for such an expanded six-year 
high school course it should not be difficult to elaborate ; 
the scheme would in the main involve the expansion of 
each two years of the high school course into a three 
years' course in the interest of thoroughness and sys- 

1 Sachs, J., " The Elimination of the First Two College Years : A Pro- 
test," Educational Re-view, Dec. 1905, 48 ff. Salmon, L. M., " The En- 
croachment of the Secondary Schools on the College Curriculum," 
Proceedings of 20th Annual Convention of Association of Colleges 
and preparatory schools of Middle States and Maryland, 1906, 56-63. 



PRESENT STATUS OP THE PUBLIC HIGH SCHOOL II3 

tematic progress ; within the range of work hitherto 
undertaken it would allow for a normal attainment of 
fundamental knowledge in each new subject, for pre- 
cision and accuracy of basic information; this would 
enable the pupils in the higher stages to experience, 
because of the definite power acquired, some intellec- 
tual pleasure in the advanced studies, which the pres- 
ent unremitting stress of the congested program can 
hardly promote. 

A tentative six-year program from this point of view 
was formulated in the report of a committee, known as 
the Pettee Committee, in 1902 ; ^ the sponsors of this pro- 
gram claimed no more for it than that it was a crude 
blocking out of the current studies along new lines of 
distribution ; from many of its details one might justly 
dissent, but it was of great significance, for it incorpo- 
rated certain vital assumptions that American teachers 
would do well to weigh. It was especially suggestive 
in the proposed rearrangement of the mathematical 
work, and this part of the plan has been carried out 
successfully, even where the six-year scheme as a whole 
was not possible. From a careful study of this plan in 
conjunction with the programs of typical German 
and French secondary schools (the last two years of 
which would have to be omitted, as they parallel our 

1 Reprinted in article of Professor Hanus, Educational Review, May, 
1903, 457-461. 
I 



114 THE AMERICAN SECONDARY SCHOOL 

first two college years) several workable six-year pro- 
grams could be established. 

The ideal of a six-year high school course is not 
within proximate realization throughout the country ; 
a protracted campaign of education will be necessary to 
establish its value, a campaign that must first secure the 
cooperation and energetic advocacy of school superin- 
tendents and principals before it will gain recognition by 
school boards and tax-paying citizens. 

Meanwhile our four-year high school courses of varied 
types and aims are with us ; an analysis of their conditions 
ought to show wherein their strength and their weakness 
lies, and prompt to suggestions for their improvement. 
The vagueness of aspiration, the indefiniteness of pur- 
pose, which has marked the work in our high schools in 
the past is in striking contrast to the definiteness of aim 
in the various types of the German and French secondary 
schools. This was drastically revealed in the preliminary 
investigations of the Committee of Ten ; they reported 
the presence of nearly forty subjects in the courses of 
different high schools,^ many of them useless because of 
the brevity of time allotted to them, others inappropriate 
to the age and the stage of development of the pupils. 

A number of these subjects have been generally 
eliminated, and the present-day curricula show a great 
diminution in variety of secondary subjects ; neverthe- 

1 Report Committee of Ten, p. 5. 



PRESENT STATUS OF THE PUBLIC HIGH SCHOOL II5 

less, the schools have not yet completely overcome 
the tendency to introduce an apparent enrichment 
of their courses at the cost of thoroughness. Many 
a course is offered that falls below the minimum of 
what the Committee of Ten designated as a sub- 
stantial course, occupying for one school year an 
average of four recitations per week, and the options 
suggested are often attractive in semblance rather than 
genuinely valuable. But there has grown, within the 
last fifteen years, in communities that accept the guid- 
ance of thoughtful educational leaders, the conviction 
that there must be agreement as to lines of study 
essential as a nucleus of secondary school work. 

It is now well understood that there are six lines of 
study, no one of which can be ignored (Butler, Hanus, 
Harris), English, one foreign language, history, mathe- 
matics, science, manual arts. The language and history 
group should be in the foreground of our interests ; it 
should be the definite backbone of the secondary course, 
the fundamental attainment of the adolescent. In favor 
of the studies of this group we will do well to accept 
the opinion of Paulsen, the historian of the German 
higher school system, that the past records of the life 
of mankind are better calculated to influence the souls 
of the young than the inflexible laws of nature.-^ The 

iJn an interesting recent document {Aiifgabe und Gestaltung der 
hohersn Schulen, Drei Vortrdge, Munich, 1910) prominent represen- 



Il6 THE AMERICAN SECONDARY SCHOOL 

information a pupil acquires he must be able to utilize 
in his relations to his fellow-beings, therefore he must 
express in appropriate words what he has acquired, 

I. Power in expression comes through language study, 
the power to appreciate what has been said and done 
by our predecessors; to express simply and directly 
in our vernacular what we know and what we think, is 
a preliminary to effectiveness in other branches; even 
the exceptional grasp of the thinking process involved 
in mathematics, and in the observational field of scien- 
tific inquiry, is impaired by the absence of the power 
of expression.^ It has become a recognized common- 
place that it is unsafe, unwise to expect this power to 
develop intuitively; it requires systematic cultivation. 
Even those nations that have a fairly homogeneous 
population, like France and Germany, have concen- 
trated their attention upon the acquisition of flexibility 

tatives of technical, scientific, and linguistic education agree that in 
the future development of the secondary schools the historico-linguis- 
tic branches must receive their merited recognition ('«/5r gutes Recht 
bekaupten '). 

1 The series of symposia at the University of Michigan in which 
leaders of science, law, medicine, the engineering branches and public 
affairs bear testimony to the specific value of the classics in the 
prosecution of their studies is a significant index of the opinions of 
thoughtful men ; the papers form a valuable contribution to the sub- 
ject in the face of much irrelevant criticism ; cf. Kelsey, Latin and 
Greek in American Education with Symposia on the value of humanistic 
studies, Macmillan, 1911, 83-396. 



PRESENT STATUS OF THE PUBLIC HIGH SCHOOL II7 

in the employment of the vernacular ; in France a well 
established teaching tradition has produced through 
the schools, elementary and secondary, a mastery of 
the common speech and that felicitous use of it which 
we designate as literary style, and the cultivation of 
this faculty, modestly begun, but persistently enlarged, 
is promoted by a series of educational devices (sug- 
gested in the official Plan d'etudes) that are unique in 
their completeness and effectiveness ; ^ Germany, which 
like England and America, formerly leaned toward 
a laissez-aller policy in the matter of instruction in 
the vernacular, on the assumption that it was an un- 
conscious acquisition which called for no systematic 
guidance, has completely reversed its policy within 
the last twenty years, and makes it the core of its en- 
tire educational scheme. 

"The instruction in German is, like the instruction 
in history and rehgion, educationally the most impor- 
tant, and the task assigned to it most difficult;" the 
aim is thus expressed "to develop gradually in the 
pupil the power of reproducing in a simple and 
suitable fashion in tree oral utterance sound knowl- 
edge, and clear views. All teachers must take full 

1 " French secondary education cultivates and transmits a great tra- 
dition of literary style." Sadler, Unrest in Secondary Education, Eng- 
lish Special Reports, IX, 115 ; cf. Hartog, Teaching of the Mother 
Tongue in France, Educational Review, April, 1908, 335. 



Il8 THE AMERICAN SECONDARY SCHOOL 

advantage of every means that may stimulate the 
power of expression in speech and writing." ^ It is 
the present tendency of the school to remove the 
reproach of cumbersome and involved utterance that 
formerly attached to German literary expression ; all 
recent observers agree in recognizing the intelligence 
and persistency of these efforts for clearness of state- 
ment. Lucidity in the use of the vernacular is empha- 
sized as one of the by-products of instruction in the 
classics ; Dettweiler {Lateinischer Unterricht, 2d ed., Mu- 
nich, 1906, 55) says, "Correct translation requires, in 
addition to the most thorough understanding of the 
Latin, an almost boundless insight into the divergent 
character of the two languages, and a far-reaching grasp 
of the modern tongue." 

To advance the faculty of expression should be the 
aim of our English courses ; a rationally directed study 
of literary expression, both of its best present usage and 
of its eminent models in prose and poetry, reveals to 
the student how thought is made intelligible in form, 
and should lead him to develop (not by imitation 
merely ) a natural and effective vehicle for his thoughts, 

1 Among the innumerable contributions to the method of teaching 
the German vernacular the most valuable are : A. Matthias, Praktische 
Pddagogik, 3d ed., Munich, 1908, 35, 41. Lehmann, Der deutsche Un- 
terricht. R. Hildebrand, Vom deutscken Sprachunterricht in der Schule, 
4th ed., 1890. Reform des hdheren Sckulwesens, Halle, 1902, pp. 177- 
190 (Rudolf Lehmann). 



PRESENT STATUS OF THE PUBLIC HIGH SCHOOL II9 

for in his native speech he employs a medium that 
affords him relatively the slightest obstacles. 

Interpretation of literary masterpieces, formal analy- 
sis, grasp of rhetorical devices, all these are constituent 
parts of the English teacher's work, but they are only 
parts ; he, above all others, should be both the thought- 
master and the expression-master of the school, — the 
one to direct and guide the nexus between the thought 
and its formulation in definite expression. The mere 
literary specialist is out of place here; it is the best- 
informed teacher we should have for the teacher of Eng- 
lish, — the person of broadest intellectual sympathies, 
interested in as many as possible of the student's studies, 
appreciative of all intellectual effort of the student, and 
focussing it toward expression. Each nation must re- 
gard its vernacular as the universal tool of intercourse ; 
it is the clear, unaffected use of our native speech, orally 
or in writing, that best conveys our thoughts to our 
fellow-men of the same tongue. 

Our secondary school masters have not, as a rule, 
realized the full significance of oral expression, and our 
school exercises reflect seriously the consequences. 
There is abounding evidence of the oral helplessness of 
our pupils ; we all know the halting utterance, the dis- 
connected and fragmentary ejaculation that is usually 
the apology for a clear statement, the reluctance to 
enunciate in distinct and natural flow of speech the con- 



I20 THE AMERICAN SECONDARY SCHOOL 

tent of thought. It has been customary to excuse and 
explain this lamentable defect by referring to adolescent 
shyness and reticence. But whilst this characteristic of 
adolescent youth may be freely acknowledged, it does 
not palliate the extreme remissness of the school in ac- 
cepting it as a matter of course. The school must con- 
centrate its powers, its skill, on combating this tendency 
by daily, hourly efforts, by unremitting endeavor. Our 
growing youth are not more self-conscious than those 
of other nations, and if elsewhere insistence on con- 
nected, intelligible statements triumphs over these same 
difficulties and secures distinctness in continuous utter- 
ance, we can accomplish the same results. It is a gen- 
erally recognized blemish in much high school work 
that the same teacher who accepts fragmentary, often 
meaningless, answers, and pieces them out with his own 
statements, does the major part of the talking in the 
class, a more convenient, but educationally not a valu- 
able, procedure. 

II. The study of at least one foreign language, 
whether ancient or modern, should be pursued by every 
high school student. High schools and high school 
courses that exclude altogether the study of a foreign 
language deliberately sacrifice an important educational 
agency without gaining an equivalent in increased abil- 
ity in the vernacular; their English curricula are usually 
identical with those pursued by the students who master 



PRESENT STATUS OF THE PUBLIC HIGH SCHOOL 121 

one or more foreign tongues. If the sacrifice is sup- 
posed to insure the opportunity for greater efficiency in 
other subjects, it is unnecessary; a curriculum, planned 
on sensible lines, will meet all needs. The consensus 
of educational thinkers is agreed on the value of foreign 
language study as "indispensable keys to culture." Not 
that the foreign language is essential to the proper 
grasp of the vernacular, but because unquestionably the 
analogies, both of similarity and contrast, which com- 
parison suggests, bring into distinct prominence the 
characteristics of the vernacular ; they serve to confirm 
and control usage. Besides, when properly taught, the 
study of a foreign tongue is a stimulus and corrective 
to intellectual sympathies; through the literary docu- 
ments, and above all else through the revelation of the 
foreign community's interests and aspirations, it widens 
the outlook that the study of native speech is likely to 
furnish. The choice between Latin and Greek on the 
one hand, or French or German, must depend upon 
whether we prefer to hark back to the origins, out of 
which modern peoples and literatures have grown, or 
whether we are more attracted to a study of the diver- 
sity in contemporary communities that thrives under 
fairly parallel conditions of growth. A direct outcome 
of this point of view is, then, that in the study of a modern 
language the knowledge of the present-day spoken 
language and of the social and intellectual conditions 



122 THE AMERICAN SECONDARY SCHOOL 

prevailing among the people who employ it should pre- 
cede the study of its literary development. 

III. The power to understand and interpret present- 
day problems and issues is aided by knowledge of the 
course and relation of events in the past, in our own and 
other countries. Intelligent appreciation of political and 
social questions is conditioned upon the conception of 
what the past history of the race reveals ; the under- 
standing of man to-day depends upon understanding him 
in the past. A continuous study of history throughout 
the years of the secondary school is in importance sec- 
ond only to power of expression in the vernacular, and 
it should be presented so that the progress of human 
endeavor is revealed in the various stages of the study, in 
the tendencies and the dominating principles of succes- 
sive periods. A combination of cultural and social with 
political history is necessary if we are to understand and 
advance our own institutions. Of such a conception of 
historical teaching the acquaintance with the great liter- 
ary development in the various nations is an integral part. 

IV. In contrast to these three groups of humanistic 
subjects, the mathematical course of the secondary 
school calls for a new type of intellectual insight, the 
ability to apply elementary deductive reasoning; it is, 
par excellence, a training in logic.^ It introduces the 

1 David E. Smith, Teaching of Elementary Matketnatics, Macmillan, 
1902, p. 167. 



PRESENT STATUS OE THE PUBLIC HIGH SCHOOL 1 23 

pupil through algebra to a generalization of number re- 
lations, and through geometry to an initial conception of 
space relations and to the demonstration of these relations 
by abstract proof ; its value to the student lies in the 
fact that the methods of the syllogism are developed 
by and for the student through concrete space relations. 
Logical thinking could of course be established along the 
line of other subjects of the course, but in no other way 
as directly and as obviously as through the successive 
stages of geometrical doctrine. It is of first importance 
that in the teaching of geometry the physical conception 
of the space relations and the logical processes of demon- 
strating their inevitable truth shall constantly and dis- 
tinctly be differentiated ; the training in logical reasoning 
is the particular educational contribution of mathematics to 
the experiences of the high school pupil. To the order 
in which the mathematical topics should be introduced, 
reference may be made hereafter ; the question of pre- 
senting the concrete side of geometry, which includes 
mensuration, superposition, etc., at a considerably earlier 
stage than the purely demonstrational, logical geometry, 
is attracting the serious attention of progressive teachers. 
V. An attempt to understand some of the phenomena 
of the physical universe that surround him should be un- 
dertaken by every high school pupil; and the observa- 
tional faculties that are involved in recognizing and 
combining the manifestations of the organic or inorganic 



124 THE AMERICAN SECONDARY SCHOOL 

world around him lead through the application of the 
inductive process to the establishment of the general 
truths which we call scientific. The instruction should 
be both observational and informational, combining 
laboratory work, the teacher's lecture, as well as the 
textbook, with frequent summaries or quizzes. It is of 
far less consequence that the high school pupil should 
be initiated into the fundamental facts of a number of 
sciences than that in any one he shall gain acquaintance 
with the results that observation and comparison of indi- 
vidual observation furnish ; it is the method of approach 
in the study of science that is of real significance, and 
therefore the attempt to cover a number of science-sub- 
jects in the successive high school years is less likely to 
bring about a scientific attitude than the prolonged 
and detailed study of one or two related sciences.^ 

* Dr. Georg Kerschensteiner of Munich, whose thoroughly modern 
point of view on questions of educational procedure has become fa- 
miliar to all interested in vocational training and the continuation-school, 
offers a striking statement on this point in Aufgabe und Gestaltung der 
hoheren Schiden, cited above. 

On page 52 he says : " Frankly speaking, the newer types of schools 
will never equal in effectiveness the older type, the classical gymnasium, 
unless they are ready to forego quantitatively half of the mass of infor- 
mation they undertake to convey ; quantity is to be replaced by depth of 
insight, by training of the observational faculties, and of practical scien- 
tific ability ; the value of science-teaching in the schools lies in the 
method of work, in the correct formulation of inquiry, in the securing of 
correct answers with the aid of experimentation." 

In Germany, as with us, there lurks the danger in the science-teach- 
ing of the secondary schools to convey multa, rather than multum. 



PRESENT STATUS OF THE PUBLIC HIGH SCHOOL 1 25 

VI. And finally, some phase of instruction in the 
mminal arts should be offered to every high school 
student. The cultivation of manual skill may be se- 
cured through drawing, or modeling, through designing 
or what is known as the more specific manual training, 
the development of skill in the crafts, in manipulating 
tools and in producing typical objects from woods, met- 
als, or fibers. This larger conception of experience in 
the manual arts seems likely to replace the demand for 
the activities of the workshop, which does not make its 
appeal to all students. 

We have thus cursorily considered the subjects we 
deem the essentials of the secondary course ; with these as 
the substantial core of the work there seems little need 
of modification to meet local conditions. At all events it 
seems undesirable to reduce the emphasis upon the 
language-history group ; their contribution to the mental 
efficiency of the adolescent pupil is so important that we 
must protest against a lessening of the time-allotment 
accorded to them. The secondary school stage is, above 
all others, the period for the acquisition of the power of 
expression, and it cannot be deferred. It is a funda- 
mental point on which the secondary school must take 
its stand ; the preponderance of linguistic training to- 
gether with history which prevails in all types of second- 
ary schools abroad is not, as some iconoclasts claim, a 
relic of past traditions ; the leaders of thought in science 



126 THE AMERICAN SECONDARY SCHOOL 

and mathematics are in agreement on the supreme value 
of this attainment in professional and practical life. 

Assuming always the presentation of the several sub- 
jects by efficient and conscientious teachers, the essen- 
tials, as just outlined, can be covered satisfactorily in the 
following allotment of time : — 

English : four recitations per week throughout course. 
History : three recitations per week throughout course. 
Foreign language : five recitations per week throughout course. 

If the choice falls upon modern languages, the first language might 
be reduced in 3d and 4th year to two periods per week to allow 
three periods per week for a second language. 

Science : four recitations per week throughout course. 
Mathematics : four recitations per week throughout course. 
Manual arts : four recitations per week throughout course. 

As the work in manual arts requires no home prep- 
aration, this scheme involves twenty periods of prepared 
work. 

Two features of this scheme call for detailed exposi- 
tion. 

(a) The departure from the current doctrine of five 
weekly recitations per week in each subject, and (d) the 
question of the total number of recitations per week. 

(a) Until 1 892, and even to the present day, the pre- 
vailing distribution of studies in many high schools was 
such that four subjects, to each of which five periods 
per week were assigned, constituted the weekly program. 



PRESENT STATUS OF THE PUBLIC HIGH SCHOOL 1 27 

The investigations of the Committee of Ten disclosed 
the fact that such mechanical assignment made it im- 
possible to incorporate the desirable and necessary sub- 
jects (usually five in number) in high school courses : it 
involved an illogical and disjointed arrangement of sub- 
ject matter in successive years. In many programs 
history was offered in two years, often separated by one 
or two years' interval, science likewise in two years, 
frequently in the first and fourth years, mathematics 
rarely covered more than three years ; foreign languages 
were either entirely ignored or carried through only two 
or three years ; English was the only subject accorded 
a full four years' course. 

It was claimed that five recitations per week in a sub- 
ject were necessary to create an intensive interest in it. 
As in many other features of our system >an arrange- 
ment was proclaimed a logical necessity which had 
in its favor the merit of a certain convenience. It 
simplified unquestionably the problem of program con- 
struction and of distribution of teaching forces ; a more 
elaborate program requires greater skill on the part of 
the principal, greater flexibility in the teaching force. 

The doctrine, if it is worthy of the name, has been 
disproved in every other country ; interest in a subject 
is secured not by mechanical continuity of daily recita- 
tion, but by the skill in presentation on the part of 
the teacher. Furthermore, certain subjects are more 



128 THE AMERICAN SECONDARY SCHOOL 

thoroughly mastered when the advance in the subject 
moves more gradually in fewer recitations per week, 
and time is available for mental digestion; thus, as 
between three terms of mathematics, with five periods a 
week, and five terms of three recitations a week, the latter 
scheme is distinctly more favorable to a proper grasp of the 
subject ; the growing difficulties of the subject are more 
satisfactorily mastered when spread over a longer period 
of time. For the advance from absolute ignorance in a 
subject like geometry, to the genuine control of the later 
stages of plane geometry, is more than the average pupil 
mind can master in the usual allotted time ; as a result, 
memorizing takes the place of complete understanding. 
The best educational opinion of the country has 
approved of this change, and the best of the tenta- 
tive programs drawn up by the Committee of Ten 
awards to no subject more than four periods per week. 
In a subject like history three recitations per week for 
four years is infinitely preferable to two and a half years 
with five recitations a week. The doctrine of so intensi- 
fying the pursuit of a subject as to complete it within 
one or two years is a relic of certain inevitable tenden- 
cies in the old-time academy, when students attended ir- 
regularly for a year or two at a time, and felt the need 
of completing ^ (!) a number of subjects within that time. 

1 What do we mean by the completion of a subject like algebra? 
Is it not better for a pupil to have mastered in a year certain topics in 



PRESENT STATUS OF THE PUBLIC HIGH SCHOOL 1 29 

The necessities of frontier and pioneer life naturally 
weighed heavily against rational educational procedure ; 
we may understand and condone the unavoidable short- 
comings of the earlier program, but should not proclaim 
them at this day an educational benefit to the student. 
With the better organization of our school system such 
considerations should disappear. 

Much of the waste in our higher educational work is 
due to the still current tendency to rush through a 
subject, and then drop all thought of it; it is a fre- 
quent experience of students that when they have 
dropped all consideration of a subject like mathematics 
for one or two years, they are unable to take up an 
advanced course in the same subject without exten- 
sive restudy of fundamentals. The unfortunate, or 
rather let us say, the pernicious, system of allowing 
students to offer in successive instalments (3, 4, 5 
and even more are not unknown) the various subjects 
required for college entrance is distinctly detrimental 
to sound educational progress ; the teachers of college 
freshmen find themselves often unable to build upon 
definite attainments ; they must rehearse what has been 
lost by a part of the student body. 

Continuity in the pursuit of a subject, even with a mod- 
algebra so thoroughly that he has acquired the power and insight to 
advance without aid, if necessary ? Is not the question of the power 
of absorption, of the intellectual digestion, the vital one ? 

K 



130 THE AMERICAN SECONDARY SCHOOL 

erate time-allotment per week of two or three recitations, 
is for the adolescent stage distinctly preferable to an in- 
tensive and congested pursuit, followed by its premature 
elimination. Nor is there any reason to fear dissipation 
of intellectual interest from the prosecution in a given 
year of five instead of four studies ; it is entirely a 
matter of the stimulating influence by an accomplished 
and enthusiastic teacher. Intellectual torpor is quite as 
prevalent where but four studies fill the student's 
program. There dwells a natural desire in youth to 
satisfy intellectual curiosity ; this can be so directed by 
the skillful teacher that no danger of confused impres- 
sions need exist. The responsibility for awakening 
genuine interest in studies rests primarily with the 
teacher. 

{b) The number of recitations per week is so intimately 
linked with the character of the teaching, the conception 
of the recitation, and the extent of home preparation, 
that these points must be discussed in common. It is still 
the prevailing doctrine that twenty recitations per week 
is the maximum of effort attainable from high school 
pupils, especially since twenty class-recitations involve 
unaided home preparation for as many lessons. And 
because of this assumption the programs of a number 
of schools, especially of certain academies and prepara- 
tory schools, call for even less than twenty recitations 
per week. Under such an arrangement it is natural 



PRESENT STATUS OF THE PUBLIC HIGH SCHOOL 131 

that even the constants of a secondary course cannot be 
properly offered. It is impossible to characterize this 
arrangement otherwise than as educational folly ; it is 
inconceivable that head masters of such schools actually 
believe that no greater number of class recitations can 
be safely undertaken with young Americans in the 
adolescent stage, when all over Europe the number of 
weekly recitations in secondary schools ranges between 
twenty-five and thirty-four periods. 

If it means that the preparation for sixteen or eighteen 
recitations involves as much effort as it is desirable for the 
adolescent to make, then we may fairly question the whole 
doctrine of the class recitation and the preparation it 
requires. What is this doctrine.? That the recitation 
is primarily intended to determine the ability of the 
secondary school pupil to render a coherent and satis- 
factory account of the mastery of a given topic which 
he has acquired in home study ; and it is considered by 
many teachers fundamental that he should have acquired 
this mastery, unaided by previous guidance in class 
work, from the textbook that is at his disposal as his 
guide. It makes the textbook the main and immedi- 
ate source of information, and assigns to it the central 
educative influence in the intellectual growth of the 
pupil. 

This doctrine, urged by so eminent a scholar as Dr. 
Harris and others, attained general recognition when 



132 THE AMERICAN SECONDARY SCHOOL 

definite knowledge of subject matter by the individual 
teacher was inadequate, and in consequence the state- 
ments of the text were substantially the safest guides to 
facts. But even textbooks are of all possible degrees 
of accuracy, excellence, and clearness of statement, 
according to the literary and pedagogical ability of 
their authors ; some are diffuse and wordy, lacking in 
precision, others obscure from over-condensation in state- 
ment. If, furthermore, we remember that the publica- 
tion of textbooks is often not due to the pressure of 
educational needs, that inherent merit does not always 
prompt the advocacy of certain texts, that a spirit of 
commercialism is not unknown even in school boards, 
there is abundant reason for a subordination of the text- 
book to the presentation by the well-informed teacher. 
Our classroom exercises are often little more than 
uninspired reproductions, with numerous and often 
justifiable misunderstandings, of the language of a text- 
book, and the teacher simply verifies the correct or in- 
correct interpretation of the te,xt. That this process gives 
little additional stimulus to pupils who have mastered 
the text, that it exasperates bright pupils to listen to 
helpless and confused efforts at reproduction of the text- 
book content,, needs no proof. Whilst many of our best 
teachers are combating this listless method in their per- 
sonal handling of their classes, the tendency to glorify 
the textbook is still in the ascendant ; as a false and 



PRESENT STATUS OF THE PUBLIC HIGH SCHOOL I33 

pernicious doctrine it must be removed from our school 
work. 

If it is true that the majority of our teachers are 
still dependent on the textbook, and cannot safely be 
trusted to emancipate themselves from it, the fact explains 
the ineffectiveness of much of our work, the lack of 
inspiration in many of our classes. Not that the text- 
book is to be discarded or superseded ; it is one means 
of presenting subject matter. The mastery of the 
subject by the teacher must be such that the textbook 
is simply one of several tools at his disposal ; in knowl- 
edge of subject matter he ought to be as nearly as 
possible the peer of the author, drawing upon as varied 
sources of information as the author has considered. 
The only special merit of the textbook lies in its 
disposition, adjustment, and proportioning of subject 
matter. The majority of our teachers, we are constantly 
told, are incapable of the independent performance 
suggested above; the advice offered to them in the 
average textbook reveals the fact of their helplessness, 
their dilettanteism.^ Such inadequate teaching, a mere 
semblance of what is needed, accounts for unsatisfactory 
results. 

For the recitations, as they prevail through the length 
and breadth of the land, the pupils make preparation at 

1 Betts, The Recitation, Houghton Mifflin Co., 1911, 90 ff. Hender- 
son, Education and the Larger Life, p. 224. 



134 THE AMERICAN SECONDARY SCHOOL 

home, and it is the character and extent of the prepara- 
tion that is appealed to, when an increase in the number 
of weekly recitation periods beyond twenty is dreaded. 
Not the recitation periods, but the preparation for them, 
burden the lives of the pupils. It is alleged that to make 
adequate preparation requires at least as many hours of 
home work as the school exercises involve ; in some sub- 
jects, as in mathematics, we all know that the time required 
for preparation is often to the recitation period as two to 
one. What the pupil has or has not evolved in regard to 
the new subject matter by his individual unguided effort 
at home, under conditions that are frequently most 
unfavorable to concentrated effort,^ he is then to disclose 
to the critical ear of the teacher; the teacher hears and 
judges the recitation. "In former days" (they are 
happily of the past for Germany), says a leading German 
authority on pedagogy ,2 " when lessons served mainly 
as a means of controlling the home industry of the pupil, 

1 An exhaustive study of the conditions that surround home study, 
and of the value of such preparation in a number of typical studies, 
has never been undertaken, at all events has never been reported, in 
this country. To prove of real service to teachers, it should enlist for 
a given class the unremitting observation of a teacher for a full school 
year, and the records obtained should be subjected to the closest 
scrutiny. A real contribution to this subject is the study recorded in 
Meumann, Abhandlungen zur psychologischen P'ddagogik, I, part 3, and 
undertaken by Friedrich Schmidt, JSxperitnentelle Untersuchungen 
iiber die Hausaufgaben des Schulkindes, Leipzig, W. Engelmann, 1904. 

2 W. Miinch, Geist des Lehramts, Berlin, 1903, 359. 



PRESENT STATUS OF THE PUBLIC HIGH SCHOOL 135 

then the veriest botcher could be a teacher ; it was the 
reign of educational inefficiency." 

Coupled, then, with ineffective teaching goes the 
mistaken notion that there is some value to the stu- 
dent in his unaided attempt to surmount difficulties. 
It means a needless waste of undirected effort, which 
might be replaced by much admirable and effective 
work ; there is not a single redeeming feature in a 
method that demands of the pupil what it should be 
the proper function of the teacher to carry out. 
Think of the hours fruitlessly spent in mathematics 
because of the pupil's false point of view ; of the 
memory work in geometry that replaces exercise of the 
reasoning faculty. We teachers ought to know from 
experience how often a mere hint, a single question, as 
to the pivotal point of a demonstration, will make a 
proposition in geometry clear. These hints, these di- 
rections, it should be the privilege of the teacher to 
suggest in the regular class work that should precede 
home preparation. In an essay on science teaching, 
Professor Armstrong of London says : ** An even greater 
reform will be the abolition of much of the lesson learn- 
ing and lesson hearing which disgrace our present 
system. Instead of calling on children to execute tasks 
in school under skillful and watchful, but so far as pos- 
sible, limited, guidance, much of the time is devoted to 
hearing lessons learnt under hnproper conditions. A 



136 THE AMERICAN SECONDARY SCHOOL 

great part of a boy's or girl's school time is wasted in 
looking on while the work of others is corrected." ^ 

The question is pertinent ; what is the mission of 
teachers, if they throw the intellectual burden on the 
pupil? Many an attempt has been made to throw 
around this grave pedagogic defect the glamour of a pro- 
found system ; ^ we stimulate, it is alleged, in the young, 
through the sheer necessity of the home assignment, 
the power for creative insight. Granting that we do in 
one case out of a hundred, we are reminded of those 
cases of exceptional men that have developed into great 
engineers, great physicians and lawyers without the 
usual cultural training.^ 

We pay the penalty of this insistence on unaided 
home preparation ; compared with actual, tangible bene- 
fits to the pupils, the major part of our results is unsat- 
isfactory. Of the pupils, a few are at once capable and 
conscientious, a larger portion conscientious, but un- 
certain in their work ; these are the ones most seriously 
affected ; they grope along in vague misconceptions and 

1 Armstrong in National Education (London, Murray, 1901), essay on 
Science in Education, p. 120. 

2 W. T. Harris in Butler's Education in the United States, I, 87. 

» Canfield, " Adequate Preparation for the Study of Law," Columbia 
Quarterly, IV, 133. " Such a path to successful service is exceedingly 
difficult ; where one treads' it successfully thousands have been beaten 
back — discouraged and disheartened, with serious loss of what might 
otherwise have been positive productive power." 



PRESENT STATUS OE THE PUBLIC HIGH SCHOOL I37 

are keenly discouraged when the results of many hours 
of effort prove unsatisfactory. By far the greatest por- 
tion of our students develop, if they are not from the 
outset unreliable, a lack of conscientiousness ; if they 
are not totally indifferent to the outcome, they resort to 
every imaginable device, illegitimate assistance or ficti- 
tious performance in their desire to simulate some kind 
of satisfactory result. The injury to the morals of the 
individual and the class is but too obvious, and the sub- 
sequent recitation is largely devoted to a clearing up of 
difficulties to which the class ought never have been 
subjected. 

This rejection of the unaided home preparation does 
not by any means propose to substitute a state of 
passive acceptance on the part of the pupil for active 
effort. By no means does it favor a process of 
spontaneous absorption in which the teacher gives all, 
and the pupil contributes nothing but the faculty and 
the desire to accept. Cooperative effort of teacher and 
pupils in the classroom is to be the substitute for the un- 
desirable division of studies that is now in vogue. Such 
cooperation will effect one change in our school life that 
will in itself be an index of the vitalizing force of good 
teaching: our classrooms will resound with life. The 
recitation fashion as a test of a pupil's home preparation 
breeds protracted periods of monotony, of dullness, 
when a dull pupil is under recitation ; substitute for it 



138 THE AMERICAN SECONDARY SCHOOL 

the method of developing and fixing knowledge in the 
class, and the very helplessness of a dull pupil will 
stimulate the cooperation of teacher and fellow-pupils, 
and may afford the most clarifying results of a lesson. 
There are occasions when a connected, undisturbed 
presentation of a topic of recitation by a pupil is neces- 
sary and valuable, but these occasions should be the 
exception, not the rule.^ 

Under the eye of the teacher, and aided by his di- 
recting questions, goes on the process of comprehension 
of a new topic. False assumptions, false methods of 
procedure, are corrected on the spot; erroneous notions 
are not allowed to fasten themselves upon the minds of 
the pupils, but are at once revised ; there is no virtue, 
as some would maintain, in wading through error to an 
ultimate view of a truth. We know too well how many 
false views permanently ingraft themselves on the child's 
mind, and are overlooked by the teacher who has a 
multitude of misconceptions to remove. In the usual 
recitation performance of our classrooms, especially in 
prolonged translations from one language to another, 
fully one half of the errors (errors of fact, or of taste) 
remain uncorrected ; even the best teacher is unequal 
to the impossible task of dwelling upon all the blemishes 
that a protracted recitation of an individual pupil dis- 

1 Henderson, Education and the Larger Life, Houghton Mifflin Com- 
pany, 1903, pp. 225-226. 



PRESENT STATUS OF THE PUBLIC HIGH SCHOOL 139 

closes, and the main result is often lost sight of in the 
mass of faulty detail. 

Teachers err therefore who refrain from interruption 
of a pupil's performance to secure what they call an 
undisturbed recitation; no statement should be allowed 
to pass which calls for correction; the interruption 
that points out the source of error is valuable. As 
the net product of all previous discussion we may 
demand a recapitulating statement which should be 
smooth, incisive, and discriminating. The prevalent 
method of conducting a recitation is then incompatible 
with satisfactory class work; when shall we be in 
a position to substitute for it the idea of class work? 
In and with the class we are to work over the topics 
that are to engage its attention ; those previously dis- 
cussed and acquired should be summarized in some 
form of review that insures knowledge of previously 
attained facts and grasp of relationship; thus we 
assure ourselves of the basis for further work. The 
new material is then to be developed, partly from pre- 
vious experiences of the pupils, partly by intelligent 
analysis. We inspire confidence that leads to the mas- 
tery of the new by skillfully utilizing what the pupil in 
one or the other direction has made his own. It appears 
that there is much less mystery, much less difficulty in 
the new than the pupil has surmised; much of it is 
within his reach ; but the use to be made of actual pre- 



I40 THE AMERICAN SECONDARY SCHOOI. 

vious knowledge needs guidance, i.e. the discreet ques- 
tioning of the teacher.^ 

The art of teaching involves a minimizing of diffi- 
culties, a revelation of sequence and relationship. Con- 
creteness in language and in illustration, if the teacher 
is an adept in both directions, substitutes that which 
is familiar for the remote, the tangible for the abstract.^ 
The prevailing belief that concreteness in instruction calls 
primarily for the use of objects or of pictures is not well 
founded. It can quite as frequently be attained by the 
use of striking word illustrations ; it is in fact of particu- 
lar value and significance in the teaching of language 
and literature. The Germans distinguish very clearly be- 
tween Anschauungsunterricht and AnschauHchkeit im 
Unterricht ; the latter is the broader conception, appli- 
cable even where objects or pictures for purposes of il- 
lustration are not available. 

Freedom in the progress of each class exercise will 
naturally result from such artistic handling as the com- 
petent teacher brings to his task; the set order of a 
recitation which in many class exercises is supposed 
to be inexorable, must yield to a more flexible process 

1 Valuable suggestions how the pupil's available fund of information 
can be utilized, Willmann gives in his P'ddagogische Vortr'dge. Leipzig 
1896, especially in chap. IV, " Instruction and the Personal Experience 
of the Pupil.' 

2 De Garmo, Interest and Attention, Macmillan, 1908, chap. IX. 



PRESENT STATUS OF THE PUBLIC HIGH SCHOOL I4I 

in the interests of the class and of the topic. When a 
review is desirable to connect the new field of inquiry 
with the old, it may take on a variety of forms ; why may 
we not substitute for the formal review a brief oral 
summary of the last lesson, or on occasion reach back 
farther to embrace in a general sweep a comprehen- 
sive survey of a week's or a month's work ? Why not 
eliminate the formal review on a given occasion alto- 
gether, and yet glean its results, as we advance into 
the new territory? The interest of a class exercise is 
dependent, more than most teachers imagine, upon 
an occasional departure from routine. We do not 
sufficiently realize the effect on our pupils of recitations 
that seem to follow a fixed formula, — that introduce no 
variation in the question types, and invite an almost 
mechanical sequence of formal statements. 

A study of our educational literature points to the 
fact that the art of questioning as an educational factor 
has received but little attention.^ How many teachers 
bear in mind this fundamental fact that the question in 
teaching differs completely in intent from the question 
in ordinary life ? The teacher is not supposed to ask for 



1 Some guidance is afforded in De Garmo, Interest and Education, 
chap. 14, " The Art of Questioning " ; in its analytical portion this chap- 
ter coincides substantially with an admirable little German treatise by 
Reinstein, Die Frage im Unterrickt. Leipzig, 1886. See also Betts, 
The Recitation, Houghton Mifflin Company, 53-78. 



142 THE AMERICAN SECONDARY SCHOOL 

personal enlightenment; he knows, he is not sure whether 
the pupil knows. The educative question tests the state 
of mind of the pupil, and it aims to lead him (educo) to 
a correct grasp of his topic. It seems to be assumed 
that, given the content of a lesson, it is only necessary 
to use the question formulas ("what," "how," " when," 
" why ") and the object of questioning will be attained. 
This is far from the truth ; we have in the question, in 
the different types of the question, one of the most valu- 
able instruments in teaching. And an exhaustive study 
of the range of questioning, of its application under vary- 
ing forms for varying purposes, is desirable both for the 
possibilities and the limitations it reveals. 

With the question is involved the answer as part of 
the educational process ; the other half of the dialogue 
between teacher and pupil. In our acceptance of the 
answer we must regard its form as well as its content ; 
precision in form at the earlier stage may later on 
yield to freedom in form. The answer unfolds to the 
teacher the influence of his question, often helps him 
to realize whether his query has been indirect, con- 
fusing, misleading, redundant, incomplete, or the re- 
verse, whether it has been apposite or too vague, too 
comprehensive, whether it marks a proper step in a 
series of sequences, etc. That the student's bent of 
mind must direct the progress of our questioning, we 
are too apt to forget. 



PRESENT STATUS OE THE PUBLIC HIGH SCHOOL 143 

To definite practice in the art of questioning the 
German seminaries devote constant attention; no part 
of the teacher's training is subjected to closer scrutiny, 
and the questioning ability of the expert teacher is a 
strangely interesting revelation of method, separated by a 
far remove from the catechetical method of former times.^ 
The ideal character of all questioning, Frick, one of the 
great masters of German pedagogy, has summarized 
in vol. 16 of Lehrproben und Lehrgdnge, Halle, p. 39 : 
"A properly devised questioning process must lead 
systematically from a definite body of connected infor- 
mation through a definitely connected chain of thought 
to a definite conclusion. The starting point must be 
assured, clear of misunderstandings ; the progress must 
be logical, without break of continuity or treacherous 
overlapping of statements ; the pupils' cohclusion must 
be precise, must grow of necessity out of the data off- 
ered, must not permit of alternative results." 

A recent study of this important subject by Miss 
Romiett Stevens,^ offered as a doctor's dissertation at 
Columbia University, is worthy of the closest attention; 
on the basis of an historical survey it investigates the 
whole subject most satisfactorily, and points the way to 

1 Matthias, Praktische Padagogik, 3d ed. Munich, 1908 j cf. the 
section on Die Fragekunst, pp. 104-114. 

2 Romiett Stevens, " The Question as a Measure of Efficiency in 
Instruction " : A critical study in classroom practice. Teachers 
College Contributions to Education, 1912. 



144 THE AMERICAN SECONDARY SCHOOL 

exercises in normal and training schools that ought in 
time remove the stigma of mechanical performance from 
one of the leading tools in the teaching process. 

It is not too much to say that no part of the teacher's 
work requires finer powers of discrimination ; no other 
form of instruction compels the teacher in like degree 
to investigate a topic thoroughly, to grasp the intellectual 
needs and capabilities of his pupils, to be free from any 
delusions as to his successive efforts. The attempt to 
elicit clearness out of hazy, indefinite premises defeats 
itself every time ; it is like a definition in terms that are 
themselves not clearly comprehended. And the neces- 
sity of restraint, the compactness of expression which is 
an ideal of the questioning method, affords one of the 
highest tests of pedagogic ability. 

We realize how even adults grow restive under the 
monotony of sermons and addresses that reveal too 
clearly a set form of subdivisions and captions; how 
much more destructive of genuine interest must such 
adherence to an inflexible type of questioning be to the 
pupil, subjected to it year in, year out! The unex- 
pected, the element of surprise in the conduct of a reci- 
tation, the air of expectancy that is engendered by a 
teacher who approaches his subject from any one of a 
number of points of view, whose active mind sees rela- 
tionships that are not patent to the average observer, 
these are very distinct means of counteracting the dead 



PRESENT STATUS OF THE PUBLIC HIGH SCHOOL 1 45 

level of routine performance. More effective than a 
correlation that is deliberately sought, and too often 
overworked, is the natural correlation that suggests it- 
self to a richly informed mind ; that finds points of 
contact and comparison in seemingly distinct lines of 
experience. 

Flexibility in the conduct of class exercise must, 
however, go hand in hand with definiteness of aim ; 
in much higher degree than where the subdivisions of 
a textbook, the number of pages or chapters allotted, 
mark the tale of the daily performance, must the teacher 
in advance have mapped out his plan for the class ex- 
ercise. Just so much he proposes to undertake, so much 
is to be accomplished before the hour is concluded; 
he must realize the peculiar difficulties inherent in his 
subject matter, the degree of responsiveness of his 
pupils ; he will modify, as occasion demands, the rate of 
advance, the proportion of repetition and drill required to 
secure definite control of the new material, he will in- 
volve in the progress of the work every member of his 
class by the subtle alternation of the expository and the 
question-and-answer method. The current complaint of 
pupils in many of our classes : " I have not been called 
upon to recite to-day," should become obsolete ; in a 
properly conducted class exercise there should prevail the 
feeling that all pupils are under recitation all the time, 
i.e. there ought to be no moment when any pupil should 



146 THE AMERICAN SECONDARY SCHOOL 

not be ready to demonstrate his participation in the 
given exercise. It rests with the teacher to create and 
maintain this relation of all pupils to the topic in hand. 
The conduct of this type of class exercise is far removed 
from the accepted form of our recitations. It means a 
much greater demand on the mental activity of each 
teacher, on his didactic skill ; but it is the only form of 
teaching worthy of the name, the only form that will in- 
sure substantial intellectual results. If our candidate 
teachers are reluctant to face such demands, then they 
have mistaken their calling, and we must steadily main- 
tain our demand until we secure the new type of teacher, 
adequate to face the new requirement. The improve- 
ment of our work will never issue from improved text- 
books or more scientific arrangement of courses ; it is 
bound up in the abihty and active performance of the 
teacher. 

The abandonment of the antiquated conception of 
the recitation is a fundamental factor in the improve- 
ment of our teaching. The transition to the new type 
of class exercise will at first prove strange to our pupils; 
the call for concentrated attention means some readjust- 
ment of their intellectual habits, but the obvious gain in 
definite attainment, in active guidance as contrasted 
with their former aimless groping, will make its appeal 
to them in a new light. They, as well as their parents, 
will appreciate the marked economy in effort for which 



PRESENT STATUS OF THE PUBLIC HIGH SCHOOL 147 

the new conception of the class exercise stands. This 
will be particularly manifest in the modified r61e that 
will be assigned to home work ; it is not to be discarded 
altogether, but its object is primarily to verify the grasp 
on new information the pupil has attained, through 
the joint labors of teacher and pupil in the class. It 
will bring to the teacher evidence that his class efforts 
have been successful, that the pupil has acquired an in- 
sight which perseveres and which he can without diffi- 
culty apply. It does not preclude in the higher stages 
efforts that call for original work, original problems in 
mathematics, interpretation of selections in foreign lan- 
guages, essays, etc., but the cardinal principle obtains 
that the classroom and class exposition are the proper 
centers for the acquisition of power, and only when such 
power has been definitely secured will the pupil be 
called upon to give evidence of it in unassisted work. 

Oui doctrine of unguided home work is curiously con- 
tradictory of Dr. Butler's and John Fiske's insistence 
on the value to the human race of the lengthening 
period of infancy ; we seem at the very beginning of 
adolescence inclined to remove suddenly the props that 
should guide our young people, and instead of continu- 
ing our wiser guidance, we compel them to shift for 
themselves ; what discomfiture this method has brought 
to the majority of our secondary school pupils, teachers 
themselves are best able to judge. 



148 THE AMERICAN SECONDARY SCHOOL 

A change of emphasis then in the relations between 
home preparation and class exercise will remove the 
main obstacle to an increase in the number of class 
periods for purposes of instruction. It will require 
no further proof that twenty-five periods of class work 
under this changed method will mean less hardship 
to the pupil than twenty periods under present con- 
ditions. We may dismiss as unworthy of attention the 
pretence that pupils of the high school stage cannot 
well compass a more arduous school day than one of 
four solid teaching hours of sixty minutes each. By 
what reasoning could we justify the assumption that a 
diminution in the hours of daily school attendance from 
the requirements of the elementary school is desirable 
for the high school pupil .'' As in the case of the five reci- 
tations in each subject per week which were once deemed 
essential, we have attached to an accident of conven- 
ience the significance of a principle. 

In a number of high schools throughout the country, 
particularly in the Middle West, the claim that longer 
attendance in daily session is undesirable or injurious has 
been disproved in actual practice, and under improved 
methods of teaching there is no reason why the system, 
now operative in a limited number of schools, should not 
be generally adopted. The scheme of the Indianapolis 
Manual Training School, and of similar high schools, for 
a full high school day (a morning session, followed, 



PRESENT STATUS OF THE PUBLIC HIGH SCHOOL I49 

after a liberal noon recess, by an afternoon session of two 
to two and one half hours, devoted to various forms 
of instruction in the manual arts, to designing, pat- 
terning, shop work, and to physical exercise), evidently 
appeals to communities that look upon the period of 
the high school as one of serious preparation for the 
exigencies of professional and business life. 

It is important to emphasize this point of view. An 
amiable spirit of dilettantism has tended to weaken the 
intellectual and moral fiber of our adolescents; it has 
undermined the significance of genuine secondary 
school work by attaching to extraneous activities that 
are either useless or injurious, at all events alien to 
intellectual interests, an importance to which they are 
not entitled. In the life of the school, as in the larger 
life of the community, the ^^ recall" maybe necessary 
as a means of escape from our own shortsightedness. 

Our educational aims are seriously hampered by the 
weakness of family life in the community, by the lack 
of positiveness, the excessive indulgence or the indiffer- 
ence of parents ; and the social philosopher who sug- 
gests the abdication of control in favor of the "self 
realization" of the young, which often amounts to hardly 
more than waywardness and insubordination, may do well 
to consider the words of warning of men like Sadler,^ 

1 Sadler, " Impressions of American Education," Educational Review, 
March, 1903, 221. 



150 THE AMERICAN SECONDARY SCHOOL 

Faunce,^ and Wheeler.^ Has the plea to "respect 
the individuality of the child "^ (which within sane 
limits no sensible teacher loses sight of) not been 
responsible for the nurturing of that "undeveloped 
morality" to which Jane Addams {Tweiity Years in 
Hull House) ascribes much of our municipal corrup- 
tion ? A consideration of the distracting and deterrent 
influences that operate against effectiveness in the 
secondary school makes plain the duty of the teacher 
if he realizes the importance of his mission ; he above 
all others should speak unequivocally on this point. 
If the function we assign to the secondary school as 
a formative influence for later life is that of effectively 
developing and disciplining the intellect of the pupil, 
then it cannot be met by a half-hearted, easygoing 
process; it is uncompromisingly a serious task, and 
as such must be realized by teachers, pupils, and par- 
ents. And the realization of the seriousness of the 
task cannot be attained too early. 

The adoption of a solid twenty-five-period program 
for the entire high school course, coupled with the 

1 Faunce, " Moral Education in the Public Schools," Educational 
Review, April, 1903, 340. 

2 Benjamin Ide Wheeler, " Things Human," Atlantic Monthly, Nov., 
1902, 641. 

3 " Often an equivalent for permitting the pupil to do what he 
pleases." H. Thiselton Mark, Individuality atid the Moral Aim in 
American Education. Longmans, 1901, 155 ff. 



PRESENT STATUS OF THE PUBLIC HIGH SCHOOL 151 

requirement of illuminating teaching by the teacher, 
and the substitution of a qualitative for a merely 
quantitative measure of attainment, would at one stroke 
enable the high school to substitute for the congested 
status of the present-day curriculum a generous and 
rational growth in the subjects selected for presentation. 
Two other considerations deserve a word of comment : 
I. The question of the number of periods of teaching 
that may be normally assigned to the teacher. With 
the change in the character of the teaching here ad- 
vocated, we cannot expect an excessive number of teach- 
ing hours of the masters. The type of teaching involved 
makes far more strenuous demands on the physical and 
mental energies of the teacher ; on the other hand, some 
of the energy that has gone out into disciplinary activity 
will be available for intellectual effort when the class 
exercise is suffused with vitality and vigor, and listless- 
ness, which is the product of poor teaching methods, 
no longer tempts to mischief. A capable, vigorous ] 
teacher may be expected to teach a maximum of twenty , 
periods per week; with the supplementary work inci- / 
dental to his conduct of the classes, such as preparation 
of experiments, correction of papers, outlining of paral- 
lel readings, and the work of an administrative character 
which forms part of every teacher's duties, this limit 
should not be exceeded ; it is slightly below the average 
called for in European schools. In a twenty-five-period 



152 THE AMERICAN SECONDARY SCHOOL 

school program, then, there will have to be an increase 
in the teaching force, and this increase, though apparently 
an additional financial burden on the community, is 
required in the interests of real economy, of the best 
results for a given outlay. 

2. The study periods as part of the secondary school 
day should be abolished ; they are largely wasteful and 
ineffective; they have been introduced primarily to 
conceal inadequacies in the available teaching force ; at 
times, three or four sections, each of which ought to be 
under the instruction of a teacher, are grouped in an 
assembly room under one teacher who is exercising 
monitorial function, and who is unable frequently, from 
the nature of his own studies, to aid the students in their 
difficulties. In coeducational classes these study tdc- 
riods give rise to distractions of an undesirable nature ; 
the segregation of the two sexes in the Cleveland high 
schools during study periods is an attempt to obviate 
one of the most patent disadvantages.^ 

From the standpoint of justice to theneeds of the pupils, 
the system of the study period is at its worst when in 
the same classroom a part of the pupils are under reci- 
tation, the rest assigned to study. Both divisions are 
then the sufferers; the sections under recitation do not 
secure the undivided attention of their teacher, and are 

1 On Segregation in Study Periods, cf. Report Coram. Education, 1909, 
I, p. 180. 



PRESENT STATUS OF THE PUBLIC HIGH SCHOOL 1 53 

often distracted by the behavior and performance of 
non-participants, the others spend time more or less 
aimlessly, and the net result of their undirected work is 
out of all relation to the time occupied. ^ We lament 
that our school days are congested, and yet we deliber- 
ately reduce the time available for teaching by these 
stop-gaps. In truth the entire school session should 
be devoted to teaching ; in every period a responsible 
teacher should be conducting a class exercise in which 
all students in the room should participate. The system 
of the study period is practically an admission that we 
are giving part time instruction ; the hue and cry against 
part time instruction in our large cities, where it is due 
to the inability of the school authorities to provide seating 
accommodations for the rapidly increasing school popu- 
lation, might be reechoed in every country high school 
where there is a shortage in the teaching staff. As usual 
in such cases, the tendency to temporize and palliate has 
given rise to the claim of certain wonderful educational 
advantages in a makeshift that is without qualification 
injurious to the efficiency of the school. Our children 
need to be trained how to study, but such training is 
not afforded in the study periods of our high schools. 

1 The difficulty is frankly recognized by Bagley, Classroom Manage- 
ment, chap. XIII, but he battles uselessly with the attempt to suggest 
an elimination of the waste ; the remedy must be a radical one, — elimi- 
nation of the study period. 



CHAPTER II 

The Private Secondary School 

In contrast with the public high school whose instruc- 
tion is free to all entering students and Vhose cost is 
met from the public funds of the community, all schools 
that are supported by the payment of tuition fees for 
instruction offered, may be grouped together as private 
schools. In relatively few cases, as in a few academies, 
endowment funds of remote or more recent creation as- 
sure a certain financial stability, and enable the school 
to assume in material equipment and in teachers' salaries 
an outlay beyond that warranted by tuition fees ; with 
few exceptions, however, the income from such endow- 
ments represents but a small fractional part of the total 
income and is furthermore often designed by the nature 
of the gifts to assist deserving students who are unable 
to meet the expenses of private-school instruction. The 
private school depends in the main for its support on 
the approval of its methods by its patrons. The parents 
of all pupils at a private secondary school are at the 
same time taxpayers and contributors to the maintenance 
of the public high school. If, therefore, they incur this 

154 



THE PRIVATE SECONDARY SCHOOL 1 55 

additional expense, which is at times very heavy, they 
must be prompted to their choice of a private school 
by considerations that ought to be reflected in its 
character. The private school is in their eyes a 
better or a more desirable one than the public high 
school — better, if it has a well-established reputation 
for excellence of its teaching faculty, for definiteness 
and continuity in educational method, for intelligent 
conception of the individual student's needs, for abiding 
influence on the character of its students by a prestige 
that has become to successive classes a tradition — 
more desirable, if it assures a certain social atmosphere 
in teachers and students that many parents consider a 
more important factor than educational excellence. 

It may at once be said that the craving for a private school 
as a socially desirable grouping of students introduces 
an element fraught with danger to the school, and alien to 
the vitalizing force which inheres in a broadly democratic 
conception of society. The ability or the readiness of 
parents to meet the financial requirements of such a 
school furnishes no evidence that they or their children 
are socially or morally desirable. It is unpardonable, 
certainly unprofessional, to find schools pandering to 
these unworthy grounds of preference ; it accounts 
for the prejudice and hostility against the private 
schools that is found in many parts of our country. 

The judgment and freedom in choice and retention of 



156 THE AMERICAN SECONDARY SCHOOL 

pupils that a strong administrative head of such a school 
exercises is the main guarantee of a sound standard of 
desirability, and the free use of this discriminating 
judgment is at once one of the most important and 
delicate prerogatives of the principal. He will, if he is 
wise, relegate this factor of desirability to the secondary 
place it deserves, and make the standing of his school 
dependent on the positive elements of excellence which 
stamp his school as the better one. 

As already stated, the value of a private school 
should be gauged by its teachers, by its educational 
policy in which the convictions of its leader should 
find expression, and by its vital response to the inter- 
ests of those entrusted to its care. By its excellence 
in all these respects a private school must be judged, 
must stand or fall; it has no reason for existence 
unless it has in all these directions something to offer 
that is unattainable in the public high school. It 
is such a school that Dr. Harris considered a necessary 
element in our educational scheme;^ by what it con- 
tributes positively to the educational possibilities of 
the country, it should be measured. 

A private school, then, that is primarily a commercial 
venture, may be of benefit to its enterprising head; the 
community derives no advantage from it. To make it of 

1 Wm. T. Harris, " Education in the United States," in Shaler's The 
United States of America; cf. English Special Reports, VII, 355. 



THE PRIVATE SECONDARY SCHOOL 1 57 

positive value, its head should at the very outset appreciate 
from close, personal study the merits and difficulties of the 
public high school, and offer to his paying patrons a 
scheme that compasses the excellencies and obviates the 
disadvantages inherent in the larger and often unwieldy 
undertaking; he should assume on the strength of per- 
sonal conviction and initiative the final responsibility 
for the educational belief that finds expression in his 
undertaking. With a mind receptive to modifications 
in educational procedure, and critical in their valuation, 
he can experiment where experimentation on a larger 
scale, in a public educational system, might be premature ; 
personally directing and observing an innovation, he 
can develop its fullest possibilities, or can without serious 
impairment alter a policy that does not work out well in 
practice. 

The privileges and responsibility of a private school 
principal center in his attitude toward educational 
thought ; he realizes that he must face the brunt of the 
issue; a mistake in educational judgment may react 
upon him. The issues involved are not merely matters 
of theoretic, abstract correctness; he must realize the 
needs of his community ; if his scheme of school work 
adequately answers this need, it deserves to be success- 
ful. It is clear that the greater flexibility attaching to 
the smaller numbers of the private school permits and 
invites experiments. The history of educational move- 



158 THE AMERICAN SECONDARY SCHOOL 

ment with us, as in other countries, bears witness to the 
value of personal enthusiasm in the furtherance of new 
methods ; the element of personal responsibility is a 
reasonable safeguard against foolhardy, ill-considered in- 
novations. The readiness of private school principals to 
test departures from current methods is worthy of special 
commendation, seeing that it is undoubtedly easier and 
safer to move along conventional lines. 

Exception must be taken, however, to Dr. Harris's 
further inferences ; he would have the administrators of 
the public school educational system wait for the results 
of experimentation in the private schools. Why should 
not the public school superintendents, if convinced of 
the pedagogic value of a new thought, test them di- 
rectly.' Some of our best superintendents are actively 
engaged in such experimentation ; they carry it on in a 
few selected schools before they embody the results in 
the whole of the school system. 

Mere mechanical expertness then is not a sufficient 
vindication for the private school enterprise ; as the pub- 
lic schools grow in efficiency, the private school must, if 
it would keep pace, not only maintain its special advan- 
tages, but increase them. At present the most obvious 
difficulties of the private school lie in the direction of 
equipment; without endowment, without the great num- 
bers that make adequate financial return possible, it is 
not easy to provide the facilities in laboratory equip- 



THE PRIVATE SECONDARY SCHOOL 1 59 

ment, in libraries, in illustrative material that are recog- 
nized as essential. 

The main advantage of the private school must cen- 
ter in the selection of its teaching staff. In the esti- 
mation of its patrons the conduct of the individual 
teacher is of the greatest significance, and in each 
case the choice should be made not only on the basis 
of efficiency, but also of character. Whatever may 
be said in favor of the competitive system of examina- 
tion in the public school system to insure definiteness 
of intellectual attainment, it furnishes neither a char- 
acter test nor an assurance of teaching ability. The 
principal of a private school, with an accurate knowledge 
of his constituency and of his peculiar problems, and with 
the keen eye that personal responsibility is apt to train, 
is likely to probe more minutely than the larger public 
system is capable of doing ; he will fix his own standards 
of measuring the attainments of prospective teachers, 
for the competitive system affords only a relative meas- 
urement; he knows, furthermore, that a teacher with 
an excellent record elsewhere may not be as successful 
in new surroundings, and his engagements of teachers 
are frankly contingent upon acceptability that can only 
be revealed in actual class management, A private 
school is not obliged to carry for a length of time on its 
staff, as the public system so often does, teachers who 
are temperamentally disqualified. The opportunity of 



l6o THE AMERICAN SECONDARY SCHOOL 

the private school to rid itself promptly of the incubus 
of incapacity or incompatibility is a distinct advantage. 
It is, however, far from the interests of a good private 
school to create a feeling of insecurity of tenure among 
its teachers ; the more individual tendency for which it 
stands, requires permanence and a certain continuity of 
its effective teachers. 

From its nature the private secondary school incurs 
another type of difficulties with which the public high 
school is not compelled to cope ; it may to some extent be 
itself responsible for the perplexity of the situation. With 
its attractive offering of smaller classes, of the conse- 
I quent increase in attention to the individual student, 
1 and of carefully selected teachers, it has seemed able 
'{ to accompUsh what the public high school cannot fully 
j realize — not merely to instruct, but to educate, i.e. 
I to assist the pupil through the information he has ac- 
quired to a proper adaptation of himself to his larger 
environment in the social body. The special mission of 
the private school has been, however, misconceived and 
abused by a portion of the community that is altogether 
too ready to divest itself of its own proper responsibil- 
ities, and to thrust them upon those who are capable to in- 
cur them. The school is first and last an integral part of 
the social fabric; to make it an unrelated gathering of 
individuals, each one of whom is to be treated as though 
his particular growth and progress were, for the time 



THE PRIVATE SECONDARY SCHOOL l6l 

being, the sole issue, is to defeat its purpose ; the pupil is 
not to be set off by himself, and no experiment that segre- 
gates him or his interests by any artificial process deserves 
to be considered educative. And, above all, the school is 
not, should not be, an educative factor merely ; it edu- 
cates in and through the instruction which is its special 
business. When it consents to take the place of the 
home, to do what parents have neglected to do, when 
it devotes itself too exclusively to the building up of 
character, it dissipates its forces ; the exhausting demand 
of duties which parents are prone to delegate in con- 
scienceless fashion to the teacher, works to the detri- 
ment of the best teaching power in our schools. 

It is frankly admitted in some of our best boarding 
academies that instruction cannot reach the high plane, 
otherwise attainable, because of the prejudicial effect 
of morally and socially untrained pupils; but the bur- 
den is also felt in private day schools, to which many 
parents turn over their children with the expressed de- 
mand that the school shall do all that is to be done for 
the pupil intellectually, morally, and socially, — the par- 
ents meanwhile pursuing their own duties and pleasures, 
among which the supervision of their children's welfare 
does not figure. Against this tendency of the remiss 
parent it is the duty of the school to protest ; to acquiesce 
in such proposals, to condone such flagrant neglect, will 
involve the school to an extent that must prove hurtful 



1 62 THE AMERICAN SECONDARY SCHOOL 

to its essential obligations, the development of sound 
educational processes. Is it not unreasonable to expect 
that which is a burden to parents to be performed more 
effectively by one who is vicariously acting for them, 
who cannot realize the various conditions that have 
been contributing within the family to a child's devel- 
opment ? The respective functions of home and school 
are clearly discriminated by a leading German thinker : ^ 
" In addition to the fundamental habits of life and simple 
concepts of relation to the world at large, the family is 
to guard and promote the life of the soul, the emotions ; 
according to its measure of refinement it will develop in 
the child the standards of gentle breeding, of tactful in- 
tercourse with others, and will foster any specific inter- 
ests, the presence of which it recognizes (music, painting, 
manual skill), seeing that they are particularly effective 
as a pleasurable avocation. It is the function of the 
home to define and control the relaxations, the amuse- 
ments that serve to supplement and stimulate the intel- 
lectual life of the child. To the school is to be assigned 
the duty of making the child a willing and useful mem- 
ber of a corporate body, of training him to strict order, to 
acceptance of authority; it is to lead to definite exercise 
of the child's intelligence and will, to concentrated appli- 
cation; it is to transmit what is desirable of the fund of 
available knowledge, is to train in thought, in precise 

1 W. Miinch, Geist des Lehramts, p. 266. 



THE PRIVATE SECONDARY SCHOOL 1 63 

and effective use of language, is to promote by diverse 
exercises mental alertness, and through all these dis- 
ciplinary arts is to create definite ideals of conduct, for 
which the part that the home has contributed is to form 
the concrete basis." 

That this absence of cooperation and of some exer- 
cise of authority in the home is one of the most vulner- 
able points in our national life cannot be gainsaid : the 
school must emphasize the plea for family influence 
against an individualism that runs riot, that sets at 
defiance the experience and the coercive moderation 
born of experience. How these social shortcomings 
influence the institution created to counteract their 
tendencies, is but too apparent; they often nullify 
the effort to establish in place of ingrained selfishness, 
which is usually the result of poor home training, a 
spirit of communal interest, of consideration for one's 
fellow beings, of acceptance of service, of willing obedi- 
ence. We need not wonder that in the face of this 
supreme necessity of counteracting the moral obliquity 
which parental indifference or indulgence has allowed 
to thrive, the headmaster of a private school finds little 
room for the consideration of ideals in education. 

Under these abnormal conditions the majority of 
our private schools cannot attain a standard which 
should be the justification for their existence ; they 
cannot be the valuable testing ground for broader edu- 



164 THE AMERICAN SECONDARY SCHOOL 

cational efforts. It is significant that many sincere 
headmasters, helpless because of the false position in 
which they find themselves, and realizing the funda- 
mental necessity of character building, sacrifice to this 
need the other standards of scholarship and intellectual 
vigor. But they abdicate their specific functions if 
they do not insistently maintain as their aim character 
plus scholarship ; it is a distinct misfortune that the 
intellect and thoughtfulness of such men is spent in 
a direction which prevents them from contributing as 
they might to the reconstruction or readjustment of 
the scheme of instruction. 

In the smaller size of its classes, in the quality of 
its teaching personnel, and in the opportunity for spe- 
cific and detailed control in method are embodied the 
distinguishing features of the private school. It ought, 
therefore, to be in a position to obviate many of the 
disadvantages of the public high school, notably that 
of incomplete correlation in the work of successive 
stages. The difficulties of transition from one type of 
school to another, from an elementary to a secondary 
type, should not exist; a genuine continuity in edu- 
cational growth ought to be its dominant feature, and a 
marked gain in educational economy should be the 
inevitable result. 

It might be urged as an objection to the continuance 
of the pupil in one and the same school that a change 



THE PRIVATE SECONDARY SCHOOL 1 65 

in methods of instruction is desirable during so pro- 
tracted a period as a ten-year course, that adolescents 
require a different method of instruction than pupils 
of elementary grade, that there is a danger in perpetu- 
ating into the highest classes methods of teaching and 
of discipline necessary and appropriate for the lower 
classes. The criticism is a fair one, and it has been 
pointed out that in the German secondary schools the 
lack of sufficient differentiation creates a feeling of 
irksomeness in the two highest classes, whose pupils 
are adults; but it should be said in justice to the Ger- 
man system that this difficulty has been recognized, 
and that the present tendency is to minimize it by a 
kind of elective system in the work of these classes. ^ 
The all-important point is that the need of marked 
differentiation be recognized by those in authority, 
that the teachers adapt their teaching and their dis- 
ciplinary methods to the changes that manifest them- 

1 Friedrich Paulsen in Monatschrift fiir hohere Schulen, IV, 65-73, 
and Steinbart, Monatschrift fur hohere Schulen, V, 18-22. Paulsen 
urges : 1. The development of a system of compensations (equivalents) 
in which weaker performances in one branch may be compensated 
for by preeminent attainments in another branch. 2. An independent 
original essay by the student in a topic of his own choice. 3. The in- 
stitution of free study days, in which competent students are permitted 
to substitute private home preparation for attendance in class (a su- 
preme mark of confidence bestowed on serious students), and finally 
the creation of student clubs for discussion of scientific and literary 
topics. 



l66 THE AMERICAN SECONDARY SCHOOL 

selves in the growing adolescent. To triumph over 
the limitations inherent in each stage of the pupil's 
school life is the essence of good teaching ; it height- 
ens, for instance, the effectiveness of good history 
teaching in the upper classes of the secondary school 
if the same teacher to whom is intrusted this advanced 
work has awakened younger pupils to the first in- 
terest in his subject in a connected, picturesque form 
of narrative. Such a teacher is more valuable in the 
initial stages of the subject than one who has not the 
larger scholarly resources to draw upon, and the same 
advantage holds for the teaching of literature, of 
science. 

Is it then not altogether strange that this vital ad- 
vantage is lost sight of .'' The majority of our private 
schools are four-year private high schools, content to 
rear their educational scheme upon previous completion 
of the public elementary school, or even to devote a 
portion of their first year to the proper acquisition of 
what should have been attained in the elementary 
school ; it is this prevailing type of school that receives 
its entering students at the age of fourteen or fifteen, 
an age when they might have been carrying on for 
some years studies of the secondary school, and is in 
consequence embarrassed, like the public high school, 
by an overcrowded curriculum, for which four years do 
not suffice. 



THE PRIVATE SECONDARY SCHOOL 167 

By contrast, a properly organized private school 
under efficient educational management that commands 
the confidence and cooperation of the parents ought 
accomplish, can accomplish, in distinctly less time, a 
scheme of study for which the present public school 
system, because of unavoidable friction at the points of 
juncture, requires in its elementary and high school 
twelve years. That ten years are quite sufficient for 
the completion of this work, has been demonstrated by 
a number of private schools ; they have, in fact, found 
it easily possible to expand their educational efforts 
beyond the minimum acquirements of the normal twelve- 
year course, and embrace in their schedule topics of 
study, not absolutely required, but distinctly desirable. 
'There is no difficulty in compassing within the allotted 
time not only the subjects stated on page 126 of chapter 
I, but in adding to them the proper acquisition of 
several foreign languages (one ancient and two mod- 
ern, or two ancient and one modern). 

The economy of such a logically devised course mani- 
fests itself furthermore in this respect, that it gains ample 
time for the broader, more generous aspects of teaching 
as against the frequent and anxious application of exami- 
nation tests. The best teaching can dispense to a large 
degree with the formal test; it tests constantly, as it 
unfolds new aspects of the subject, and relates them to 
previous experiences of the pupil. Furthermore, with 



l68 THE AMERICAN SECONDARY SCHOOL 

its continuous course of ten years, it is in a favorable 
position to apply various departures from our prevalent 
practice, such as the early introduction of a foreign 
language, the gradual advance through a given subject 
in preference to a condensed and ill-digested presenta- 
tion, the interweaving of several phases of the same 
subject, as in the case of elementary mathematics (con- 
structional geometry to be related to arithmetic, and to 
precede by several years the beginnings of demonstrative 
geometry), substantially then to put into practice edu- 
cational theory that has met with acceptance elsewhere. 
Nor is a private school expected to meet the needs of 
completely divergent groups of students such as the 
public school embraces in its constituency. The parent 
who with the opportunity for free tuition of his child in 
the public school, elects to pay for his instruction, ex- 
pects to give him the opportunity for the completion of 
his course, and he desires such course to be unified, to 
lead by successive and related stages to the goal which 
the school has fixed as its aim. There is little demand 
for an arrangement of the course of study which, when- 
ever interrupted, shall afford an immediate and effective 
transition into some phase of practical life. In this 
respect the principal of a private school enjoys a dis- 
tinct advantage ; he can regard his succession of school 
years as a whole ; what he conceives as the proper dis- 
tribution and utiHzation of time and subject matter he 



THE PRIVATE SECONDARY SCHOOL 1 69 

combines into his program of studies. The construc- 
tive problem is in consequence relatively simple ; the 
complications of our public high school problems are 
largely due to the variety of interests among those 
who attend and to the expectation that all of these inter- 
ests shall be recognized in the development of the 
school program. It involves a radical difference in pro- 
cedure whether a subject is taught as an element in a 
larger scheme, to be amplified and strengthened as the 
course proceeds, or whether our present teaching of it is 
the only consideration the subject is to receive in the 
course. Thus an introductory course in physics, con- 
ceived as preliminary to a later and ampler treatment, 
must differ fundamentally from one that is to represent 
all the knowledge the school is to offer on this subject. 
The completion of the ordinary elementary and 
secondary program within ten years presupposes a 
pupil in normal health, and a body of capable, enthusi- 
astic teachers under competent direction. It should be 
added with all possible emphasis that the carrying out 
of such a program imposes no hardship whatever on the 
pupil; it leaves ample opportunity for all legitimate 
forms of physical exercise ; it does mean concentration 
on a distinct purpose, directness, skill, and intense de- 
votion to duty on the part of the teacher, and the 
capacity to stimulate to honest intellectual effort. It 
also presupposes cordial acceptance of the principal's 



170 THE AMERICAN SECONDARY SCHOOL 

intentions on the part of parents. It is found in prac- 
tice that a strong principal, sure of his aims, wins 
vacillating parents to his point of view; his own per- 
sonality and that of his loyal teachers will gain the good 
will and interest of his pupils without much difficulty. 

When President Eliot, in his Educational Reform^ 
pp. 151-176, points out regretfully the vast discrepancy 
in mental efficiency between our pupils and German and 
French pupils at a given age, the explanation is found 
in the uncertainty of aim, the ineffectiveness of our 
teachers, and the hesitation to postulate seriousness of 
application as a legitimate demand upon our adolescent 
youth. It is this seriousness of purpose, this insistence 
on specific performance which we must make the 
dominant note of our school system, if as a nation we 
do not wish to be eliminated from a position which is 
within our reach ; as against the doctrine that we must 
at all hazards ease the paths of our young people on 
the plane of least effort, we must proclaim the doctrine 
that substantial attainment cannot be realized without 
substantial application ; in the professions and in the 
world of affairs the path to success is a thorny one, and 
it is an injustice to our youth to conceal from their minds 
the severity of the struggle.^ 

1 F. Ware, Educational Foundations of Trade and Industry. London, 
1901, p. 98 ff. ; also Sadler, Unrest in Secondary Education, Eng- 
lish Special Reports, vol. 9, 39 ff. 



THE PRIVATE SECONDARY SCHOOL 171 

They are enemies to the well-being of the growing 
generation who urge the substitution for a robust and 
invigorating discipline, of an easy, almost unconscious 
acquisition of information. A vigorous nation needs a 
vigorous progeny ; intellectual flabbiness invites discom- 
fiture, defeat. It is a common experience of the students 
in our professional schools, that until they enter them, 
they hardly realize what intense and concentrated 
application means; they are confronted with demands 
for which their previous dilettantism in study has not 
properly prepared them. 

It is well for the private schools of every type to 
weigh with caution the effect on their standing as 
secondary schools of the multifarious duties they have 
been assuming in loco parentis. Valuable as are these 
duties, shall they encroach upon the position their 
schools have always claimed as educational factors in 
the community? It has been argued recently and in 
various quarters that the private day and boarding 
school and the incorporated academy, despite their 
distinctive opportunities, are not developing in their 
best students as high qualifications on the intellectual 
side as the public high school does ; the attainments of 
their respective graduates in their college careers seem 
to confirm this criticism. 

Harvard College has been gathering for its own 
guidance some very significant statistics in this respect. 



172 THE AMERICAN SECONDARY SCHOOL 

Its entering classes are largely recruited from the pri- 
vate preparatory schools and academies (Exeter, An- 
dover, Groton, St. Mark, etc.), schools whose professed 
object is to equip their students effectively for college 
entrance. From the public high schools of the country 
whose curricula do not closely articulate with its require- 
ments, it receives but a relatively small percentage of its 
students. But of distinctions attained during the col- 
lege course, the small body of public high school 
students carry off an unusually large proportion. The 
startling discrepancy is not explained by the fact that 
the public school graduates who have won entrance 
are a picked body who have encountered and success- 
fully overcome obstacles on their path into college, 
who appreciate the value of intense application more 
than the graduates from the private schools ; it is inter- 
preted by Harvard College to mean that because of 
the distractions inherent in the present arrangements 
of the private schools, these are not as likely to foster 
scholarly tastes and powers as they might do. Hence 
Harvard has concluded to extend its opportunities by a 
new system of combined examination test and control 
of school records to as many high schools as possible, 
in order to secure what a college needs above all, — a 
large body of earnest, intellectually incHned students. 

There has not been in recent years a more specific 
arraignment of our private schools and academies; it 



THE PRIVATE SECONDARY SCHOOL 1 73 

confirms our suspicion that the majority of the schools 
have slighted the scholarly impulses in their efforts for 
the upbuilding of character. It is a misconception to 
substitute one for the other ; they represent totally dif- 
ferent methods of educational procedure, and need not 
in any way conflict in time or tendency. Any secondary 
school, public or private, should presuppose the active 
desire of its attending students to exert themselves 
intellectually ; it cannot descend to become the dispenser 
of needful information to a recalcitrant student body 
without nullifying the reason for its existence. 

Between the private and the public high school there 
is no occasion for antagonism ; ^ their aims are avowedly 
similar; the public will eventually judge which is produc- 
tive of the better results. If the smaller classes of the 
private school, the educational convictions of the teachers, 
and the relative freedom in procedure, result in attainments 
that the large public school, with its other compensating 
advantages, does not realize, the superintendents of the 
public system will not fail to suggest the changes that 
will remove the difficulties, and the taxpayers will have 
to indicate their willingness or reluctance to cooperate. 

1 The antagonism against the public high schools which finds ex- 
pression in the utterances of English headmasters who conduct private 
school enterprises is unknown in this country ; we have an open com- 
petition, with a generous recognition of the distinctive merits of each 
party ; he who deserves to win, let him win ! 



174 THE AMERICAN SECONDARY SCHOOL 

In a number of directions the greater flexibility of the 
private school could influence fruitfully the public school 
system ; it has been responsible for the more discreet 
application of administrative measures, for reforms in 
methods of promotion and in a wiser adjustment to indi- 
vidual requirements. From a financial point of view, 
too, the private high school contributes lessons that the 
public school system cannot afford to ignore ; they bear 
upon the effectiveness of both systems as educational 
agents. It may be assumed that the well-to-do support- 
ers of private schools who are already taxpayers 
are not overanxious to squander their resources ; they 
expect a full equivalent for their outlay, and whilst they 
approve of a fair profit to the managers of private school 
enterprises in return for the exercise of their talents 
and for the risks incurred, they feel warranted in 
demanding superior provision in teachers and teaching 
equipment. 

An interesting tabulation has recently been made by 
the head of one of the largest private day schools in 
the country, based upon confidential information from 
heads of similar schools;^ the object was to determine 
the percentage of expenditure devoted to the teaching 
corps, but its data may furnish suggestions of the actual 

1 These statistics have been further developed by the author ; the 
generous response to his inquiries, furnished by the principals of many 
private day schools, has proved exceedingly helpful. 



THE PRIVATE SECONDARY SCHOOL 1 75 

cost of instruction of the individual pupil, in which must 
be included the pro rata expense of general school 
maintenance (this would involve heat, light, janitorial 
attendance, and either rent on building or interest on 
capitalization and contribution to the sinking fund). 

In no case did the entire outlay for salaries and general 
maintenance fall below eighty per cent of the tuition 
fees received ; in several cases it amounted to eighty-five 
per cent. We may omit from consideration the cases 
of several religious or semi-religious school organizations 
in which the school income stands in no specific relation 
to the salary list, special appropriations being available 
to meet all deficits. The maximum of profits to the 
head of the school was twenty per cent, in most cases 
below that figure. The average income from tuition 
fees per pupil was a little above 1^150 per annum, of 
which, therefore, at least eighty per cent was spent to 
meet cost of instruction. The tabulation, furthermore, 
shows that the actual expenditure on teachers' salaries 
represents from thirty-eight to eighty-eight per cent of 
the tuition fee. 

The reports come from fourteen prominent day schools, whose 
charges of tuition range from $100 to $400 per annum ; none of the 
higher priced schools charging above $400 were included : — 
Of its income School A spends 38 per cent on teachers' salaries- 
School B 40 per cent 
School C 41 per cent 
School D 40 per cent 



176 THE AMERICAN SECONDARY SCHOOL 

Of its income School E spends 50 per cent on teachers' salaries. 

School F 56 per cent 

School G 59 per cent 

School H 68 per cent 

School I 68 per cent 

School J 71 per cent 

School K 73 per cent 

School L 79 per cent 

School M 83I per cent 

School N 88 per cent 

In schools A to K the heavy charges for general maintenance 
(rent, etc.) absorb much of each school's income ; in schools L to N 
an original endowment removes the item of rent and reduces the 
cost of maintenance. 

An investigation of the number of pupils in attendance at most of 
these schools and of the number of teachers employed showed that 
there is one teacher to twelve pupils (an average that approximates 
closely to President Eliot's statement in More Money for the Public 
Schools, p. 17, that "private schools not infrequently provide a 
teacher for every eight or ten pupils." 

School B, with a large income and the highest average of tuition 
fees of all the schools under consideration, forms a marked exception ; 
its low percentage of outlay for teachers' salaries is partially due to 
the fact that its classes are too large. 

A closer study of this confidential information reveals 
the further fact that the private school does not tend, 
like the public high school, to a disproportionate outlay 
for buildings and outfit and a modest expenditure for 
teachers' salaries ; the tendency is rather the reverse, 
except where specific gifts have been made to a school 
for the erection of specific buildings. As between the 



THE PRIVATE SECONDARY SCHOOL 1 77 

two tendencies, that of the private school is distinctly 
the sounder one ; we may approve of the feeling of 
communal pride that regards the high school building 
as a civic center ; brick and mortar, however, assembly 
halls and laboratories are but external manifestations of 
a civic spirit whose real import should be disclosed in 
the quality of the men and women employed to direct 
the functions of the schools. Our communities must 
be trained to recognize that the erection of a stately 
building furnishes an empty shell merely ; it is in the 
increasing effectiveness of what is offered within its 
walls that its permanent value abides. The most luxu- 
rious transatlantic steamer is a dismal failure unless it 
is officered by men of the greatest efficiency. 

The very existence of the private schools acts as a 
ferment in the development of public opinion. The 
whole question of the cost of public high school educa- 
tion must be subjected to revision ; the extravagant ex- 
penditure of moneys for buildings and the subsequent 
parsimony in salaries, which is most striking in smaller 
communities, is a notable example of the wastefulness 
in our public life.^ It may be assumed that the admin- 
istrators of private schools are not recklessly extrava- 
gant ; they incur the greater outlay in teachers' salaries 
because they consider it wise and necessary. 

1 Eliot, More Money for the Public Schools, N.Y., 1904. Button and 
Snedden, Administration of Public Education, p. 171, Macmillan Co., 1908. 

N 



1 78 THE AMERICAN SECONDARY SCHOOL 

The private school is not only compelled in its own 
behalf to provide a larger number of teachers for the 
same number of pupils, but a more expensive kind of 
teacher ; in boys' schools male teachers predominate as 
a matter of course, in mixed private schools the teach- 
ers are almost evenly divided as to sex, and even in 
girls' private schools the male teacher is not unknown. 

How, then, are we to interpret the existing conditions 
in the public high schools ? Are we to assume that for 
the instruction of the large classes women are more de- 
sirable than men ? It is hardly likely that any one 
would make this claim. A survey of the situation leads 
to this conclusion, that under the existing conditions of 
meager salaries, uncertain tenure, lack of appreciation 
of professional growth, it is easier to secure women 
than men as teachers.^ The aim of the school boards 
being to make their salary budget as low as possible, 
competent, energetic young men seek avenues of activ- 
ity in which positions of responsibility are not awarded 
to the lowest bidder. The fact that women are avail- 
able for high school positions at lower figures deter- 
mines their preponderance in the school system ; this, 
and no other consideration, prevails with school boards, 
however strenuously they maintain the contrary .^ 

iThe whole question of salaries, tenure and pension of public 
school teachers has been treated in the Report of a Committee on these 
subjects, made July, 1905, to the National Educational Association. 

* The Germans, prompted by the same motives of economy that 



THE PRIVATE SECONDARY SCHOOL 1 79 

It is significant that whenever the need of radical im- 
prove ment in a school system is recognized, there is a call 
for a material increase of the school budget, so that addi- 
tional male teachers of abihty may be drawn into the 
system. It may be freely admitted that for the same 
low salary a better woman than male teacher may be 
secured ; the deliberate indifference of school boards to 
economic conditions, especially to the increased cost of 
family maintenance, which affects the workman and the 
teacher alike, has driven promising young men into 
other fields of activity. 

Without disparagement of the excellent qualities of 
many women teachers, it cannot be said too emphati- 
cally that, if our high school system is to be of real 
value to the community, we cannot dispense with the 
male teacher in our schools. We need a large number 
of capable young men as permanent members of the 
profession, and the community must be educated to a 
point where it will make their positions attractive by 

prevail elsewhere, have lately been considering the appointment of 
larger numbers of women teachers ; they are, however, questioning 
the economical advantage in the face of their statistics on regularity of 
attendance. According to the Pddagogische Zeitung of Berlin, Dec. 9, 
1909 (in Report Comm. of Education, for 1910, 1, 471), the percentage of 
teachers on sick leave ran thus : men teachers, 26.94, women teachers, 
52.11, special women teachers, 42.97. In Magdeburg, similarly, the 
per cent of absence on account of sickness among the men was 26.9, 
among the women, 41.3. 



l8o THE AMERICAN SECONDARY SCHOOL 

liberal salaries and prospects of permanent appointment. 
It cannot be repeated too frequently that the contraction 
or abandonment of a high school is better than its con- 
tinuance under conditions of hopeless incompetency. 
In this matter of the predominance of the woman 
teacher in our school system we are face to face with a 
situation, the seriousness of which cannot be overesti- 
mated. 

If existing conditions are allowed to continue, and 
no adequate remuneration is offered to increase the 
number of male teachers, we shall presently have 
a generation of high school pupils who have not 
known the influence of male teachers. Excepting in 
the large cities, our high school teachers are women ; 
and even the male principal who has been in charge of 
the arrangement of studies in the curriculum, is in 
many communities being replaced by a female head. 
The consequences of this lack of balance have been 
clearly recognized by expert observers from other coun- 
tries ; ^ they are reflected in the want of incisiveness in 

1 Professor H. E. Armstrong (Rep. of Mosely Comm., p. 13, 1903) is 
particularly strong in expressions of disapproval. 

Sarah A. Burstall, English High Schools for Girls (Longmans, p. 60, 
1907) : " It should be frankly recognized that women cannot do as 
much work as men, a fact which is some justification for paying them 
at a lower rate, and that they need more allowance in the matter of 
absence due to illness." Contrast with this statement the utterances 
in English Special Reports, X, 410 ff. 



THE PRIVATE SECONDARY SCHOOL l8l 

our high school work. It is a fatal lack of insight to 
close our eyes to our defective educational policy ; we 
are steadily undermining the opportunities in which we 
profess to excel. Our school courses do not appeal 
to our pupils, because they do not serve the ends antici- 
pated. 

If the high school teacher were only the mediator 
between the receptive youthful mind and the sub- 
ject that is to be grasped, it might matter but little 
whether the mediator were a man or a woman, but 
more is involved, the shaping of character, the evolution 
of preferences as to a study, often the choice of voca- 
tion. The relation of a boy to a female teacher may 
be one of instinctive courtesy, he may accept her criti- 
cism of his scholastic attainments, may even submit 
ostensibly to her disciplinary authority, but he does not 
seek her advice in the difficulties incidental to adoles- 
cence. He wants at times the judgment, the experience, 
of one of his own sex ; the daily bearing, the outlook 
upon life of the man, gives direction to the boy's prefer- 
ences ; the woman teacher will never be consulted by 
him as a guide in the practical conduct of life. On this 
point the most sensible women teachers may be accepted 
as witnesses ; they know that their control of older boys 
is at its best limited to the performances of the class- 
room, and they avoid, as a rule, all morahzing with the 
boys, because they are conscious of its futility. A 



l82 THE AMERICAN SECONDARY SCHOOL 

special educational commission in Chicago, reporting in 
1898, recommended the appointment of a larger number 
of male teachers in the higher grades of the elementary 
schools, even at the cost of higher salaries ; they explic- 
itly attributed the ominous fact of the small number of 
boys in the secondary schools to the predominance of 
women teachers in the elementary schools. 

Studies and life are separated by a great gulf if the 
school furnishes no one to establish the connection 
between the two. Even mothers who have the firmest 
hold upon the affections of their boys realize that at the 
age of fifteen or sixteen a certain reticence sets in, and 
that at this period the influence of the father as the 
counselor, the confidential friend, of his son must reveal 
itself. The success of the best type of private school 
rests upon the recognition of these conditions ; it is for 
the men teachers to win the confidence of their boy 
pupils; in their lives the teachers are expected to embody 
certain fundamental principles of conduct which serve 
as guides in the crises of adolescent life; their judg- 
ment, knowledge, and sympathy may contribute to a 
happy issue. Contact with a virile spirit is needed by 
the healthy, turbulent boy ; sturdiness and vigor develop 
from contemplation of similar qualities ; and the with- 
drawal of boys from our high schools is due in limited 
degree only to the attractions of business ; their appar- 
ent incapacity to measure up to the required standard 



THE PRIVATE SECONDARY SCHOOL 1 83 

results quite frequently from unreadiness to continue 
under feminine control. 

The value of our women teachers inheres in their 
essential womanliness ; if their teaching is to reflect a 
sexless conception of their duties, the major part of its 
merit disappears. We all concede that in the earlier 
stages of the elementary school a woman's characteristic 
endowment makes her a particularly efficient teacher. 
She combines patience with capacity for detail, but it is 
preposterous to expect the whole adolescent school 
population, male and female, to attain to an efficient 
maturity under a system of education largely feminine. 
For both boys and girls the influence of a number of 
competent male instructors is of the greatest impor- 
tance. 

This view of the whole question is vital, as the 
great majority of our schools are coeducational. 
Experience has shown that girls relish thoroughly 
the instruction by male teachers ; they have the feeling 
that if they meet the demands of the male teacher as 
well as the boys do, they demonstrate their capacity more 
obviously than if taught by one of their own sex. But 
even in schools exclusively devoted to the education of 
girls, it would be well to have a certain quota of male 
teachers in the middle and upper classes; aside from 
the influence on the girls, the interweaving of the mas- 
culine and feminine point of view is of advantage to the 



184 THE AMERICAN SECONDARY SCHOOL 

teaching body itself, assuming, of course, that the 
teachers of each sex are representative, the men not 
weak types of the profession, the women not aggres- 
sively masculine. 

However the pronounced partisans may object to the 
term feminization in education, this undesirable tendency 
exists, and the country at large is reaping the reward of 
its shortsightedness, its mistaken parsimony. Feminiza- 
tion in education reveals itself not merely in the preva- 
lence of the female teacher; the weak and colorless 
male teacher who continues in this vocation despite 
inadequate salary, contributes no virile counter-influence. 
It is in defiance of all the dictates of common sense to 
accept as inevitable the gradual elimination of the com- 
petent, vigorous male teacher, because, forsooth, an 
approximate equivalent can be obtained at a lower rate. 

Our educational literature furnishes an index to our 
present-day trend; consult educational textbooks, read 
educational addresses ; you will find advice, remonstrance, 
professional guidance, addressed as a matter of course 
to the woman teacher ; it has become a national habit to 
think thus, and our lecturers and writers seem not to feel 
the incongruity of the situation. 

Ours is actually a nation, ninety per cent of whose 
adolescents at least have come to regard knowledge and 
culture as an essentially feminine accomplishment, be- 
cause strong men do not seem available or inclined to 



THE PRIVATE SECONDARY SCHOOL 1 85 

propagate it.^ The major part of the instruction is in 
the hands of women, the attendance in the public high 
schools shows a higher percentage of girls than boys, 
energetic male teachers are few ; under these circum- 
stances is it likely that the characteristic note of the 
high school will be absorbing energy, enlisting to the 
utmost the participation of all concerned, or will it be 
attuned to the measure of its prevailing constituency ? ^ 
This influence is palpably reflected in our high schools, 
in the character of their work, the discipline of the 
school, the attitude of the student body; it would be 
obviously an injustice to urge an insistence on a mascu- 
line type, where teacher and taught are dominantly 
feminine, and it is not surprising that the minority 
acquiesce in standards of gentler procedure. 

And the logic of our system moves one step farther ; 
with the coeducational school as the dominant public 
school type, its measure of performance has fixed the 
standard. " The methods of the recitation have under- 
gone an unconscious evolution to adapt them to the girl 
type."^ Can the boys' high school undertake to prove 

1 De Garmo, Interest and Edtication, p. 99, Macmillan, 1908. 

2 HoUister, High School Administration, chap. VIII, " Adolescence 
and Coeducation." Nightingale, A. F., " The Ratio of Men to Women 
in the High Schools of the United States," School Review, 4, 86. But- 
ton and Snedden, Administration of Public Education in United States, 
pp. 369-371, and bibliography, p. 384. 

3 J. E. Armstrong, School Review, 1910, p. 339 



1 86 THE AMERICAN SECONDARY SCHOOL 

that in the given time and under more potent teaching 
more positive attainments might be secured ? That 
would overthrow the generally admitted value of the 
coeducational scheme, whose ideals seem to satisfy the 
demands of the community, and so the boys' high school 
accepts the line of lesser resistance, and ambles along at 
the gentle gait of its associates, whilst the students fritter 
away in " idleness of a most engrossing kind " energies 
that at this adolescent stage should be directed, stim- 
ulated to the full. The failure to rouse our young men 
to their actual capacity for sustained effort constitutes 
the severest indictment of our high school system. Ed- 
ucation of the community to a definite realization of this 
fact is a duty that devolves upon our educational experts ; 
if once the economy of effectiveness is demonstrated, 
they will iind the public ready to cooperate, to make the 
larger sacrifice. 

The force of example and of uncompromising convic- 
tion counts above all else with the American public ; let 
it be clearly recognized that efficient teaching is impos- 
sible unless we offer inducements that will prolong the 
continuance of the teachers in the teaching field and 
bring to the service of the school the results of their intel- 
lectual progress and their growth in technique, and we 
shall have taken a long step toward greater efficiency. ^ 

1 A sad picture of the demoralization that has affected bodies of 
teachers is disclosed by Jane Addams in her Twenty Years in Hull House. 



THE PRIVATE SECONDARY SCHOOL 1 87 

The advocates of coeducation are at the present 
moment the most serious foes of educational progress. 
Those who recognize the need of educational advance 
must be prepared to accept the obloquy that arises 
from unreasoning partisanship ; among them are to be 
found, fortunately, a number of admirable college-bred 
women, who realize that studies appropriate to young 
men may not necessarily prove best for young women. ^ 

No one denies the practical value in the past of the 
adoption of the coeducational scheme in our schools. 
Sparsely settled communities throughout the land offered 
such educational opportunities as their slender resources 
permitted to both sexes alike ; ^ it was not the question 
whether this was most beneficial to each of the sexes ; 
the financial stress determined the alternative — this or 
nothing. Economic considerations, and only these, ini- 
tiated the coeducational school. The argumentation 

Referring to her experiences as a member of the Chicago School 
Board, she records the objections of the teachers to examinations in- 
tended to test their intellectual growth ; technique, and not increasing 
culture attainment, they claimed, was to determine promotion, as though 
intellectual stagnation could be counteracted by routine dexterity. 

1 Sachs, J., " Coeducation in the United States," Educational Review, 
33, 298. 

Sachs, J., " Intellectual Reactions of Coeducation," Ediiational Re- 
view, 35, 466. 

2 Brown, E. E., " The Making of our Middle Schools," vide Index 
under Coeducation, 527. Smith, Anna T., " Coeducation in the Schools 
and Colleges of the United States." Report Commissioner of Education, 
1903, 1, 1047 ; 1910, 1, 126-136. 



1 88 THE AMERICAN SECONDARY SCHOOL 

that what was of necessity done, was also the ideal thing 
to do, was an afterthought ; it is not the only occasion 
in the history of peoples when the exigencies of a situa- 
tion have been invested with the dignity of a leading 
principle. We are all prepared to admit that the co- 
educational idea has been on the whole successful in the 
elementary school; in the high school it has not been 
conducive to the best results, and its substantial value 
to both sexes in the coeducational college is open to 
grave doubts for a variety of reasons that have not yet 
received impartial consideration. 

To the high school age in particular applies Professor 
J. F. Brown's statement {The American High School, p. 
387) : " Belief in the wisdom of coeducation is not nearly 
so universal as its prevalence." Equal opportunity has 
become an established fact in the American high school ; 
there can be no retrograde movement in this respect. 
Are we not ready for the consideration of the next 
step in advance.'' Does equality of opportunity involve 
identity of procedure .'' ^ That there is a certain crudity 
in the requirement of identical pursuit and identical rate 
of advance, is clear from the divergent remedies that 
have been tried in various important centers. Compare 

1 Sir Philip Magnus, Educational Aims and Efforts, Longmans, 1910, 
42-47, and p. 180 : " The true theory of women's education must be 
founded on the belief that each sex is both inferior and superior to the 
other, but in different respects." 



THE PRIVATE SECONDARY SCHOOL 1 89 

the scheme of partial segregation in the recitation 
periods of the Englewood High SchooP (where the 
coeducational scheme formerly prevailed) with the 
Cleveland plan of segregating the two sexes, for valid 
reasons evidently, during the study periods (Report 
Commissioner of Education, 1910, p. 120); both schemes 
encountered at the outset serious opposition from the 
adherents of the traditional arrangement, but both have 
conquered their way to recognition. Is it in one or both 
directions that progress lies ? A recent experiment, re- 
corded in School Science and Mathematics, January, 
191 1, p. I, on the "Teaching of Physics in Segregated 
Classes," is but one of numerous evidences that, if the 
financial stress disappears, the school can concentrate it- 
self for each sex advantageously upon those lines of 
thought that appeal naturally and effectively to it. 

Just what effect the introduction of vocational train- 
ing into the high schools will have upon this question, 
remains to be seen ; but it is to be presumed that the 
creation of separate schools or separate departments 
will suggest a complete reconsideration of the method 
of subject presentation in the light of life interests. 

In the discussion of the specific province in which 
the rnale and female teacher respectively are likely to 
excel, sweeping generalizations are undesirable; it is 

1 Armstrong, " Limited Segregation," in School Review, 14, 726 and 
18, 339 ff. 



190 THE AMERICAN SECONDARY SCHOOL 

injudicious to predicate for the women teachers in high 
school work special ability on the literary side, in the 
teaching of English and foreign languages, and to re- 
serve for them these subjects, whilst we make the 
teaching of history and civics, of mathematics, of natu- 
ral science, the peculiar domain of men. 

Superintendents and principals can point out many 
individual instances in which women have shown them- 
selves exceptionally good teachers of mathematics, 
specially strong in establishing correct fundamental 
concepts of science; on the other hand, the cultural 
phases that may be suggested in the teaching of lit- 
erature and language make a strong appeal to many 
men, and it would simply emphasize existing prejudices 
to establish an arbitrary line of demarcation in the 
assignment of subjects. The decision must be based 
in every case on the teacher's special gifts ; it is clear 
that something more than book learning must determine 
his proficiency. To attempt the teaching of history and 
civics as a collection of facts, a mere record, is of course 
to deprive the subject of its vitalizing force, of its signifi- 
cance to the future citizen of the world; the teacher, 
whatever may have been contributed by personal expe- 
rience, must himself be a "political being." 

In like manner there are other than aesthetic and 
emotional appreciations to be won from the teaching 
of the vernacular and other literatures, and it is unwise 



THE PRIVATE SECONDARY SCHOOL I91 

to eliminate the masculine point of view ; the genius of 
each race, and it is this that is revealed to us in its 
literary documents, includes a wide range of human 
interests, that make their spiritual appeal to men and 
women alike. The dominant interest, the capacity to 
interpret to the young, should determine the assign- 
ment of a subject to a teacher, regardless of sex. 



CHAPTER III 

The Educational Policy of the Secondary School 

Of the two purposes which Lord Kelvin ^ claims for 
the higher education — first, to enable the student to 
earn a livelihood, and second, to make life worth living 
— the former relates studies to their practical bearing, 
the latter represents the ideal aim, and concerns itself 
less with the direct application of studies to successful 
aptitudes than with the acquisition of intellectual and 
spiritual power — the special distinction of the educated 
man. The contrast and the relationship are happily 
expressed by Mr. C. E. Rugh in his prize essay, " Moral 
Training in the Public Schools," Ginn & Co., 1907, p. 
23: "Making a living is one of the means of living a 
life. The sin of the age has been in making the means 
an end, and thus losing both." 

It is the avowed intention of our secondary schools 
to compass both ends ; but we are not agreed which of 
the two purposes shall receive the greater visible em- 
phasis. Shape your teaching, say some, so that the 
utilitarian goal is not for a moment lost sight of ; how 
to secure the practical availability of all information 

1 DeGarmo, Interest and Education, The Macmillan Co., 1908, p. 48. 

192 



EDUCATIONAL POLICY OP THE SECONDARY SCHOOL 1 93 

must determine your methods; teacher and pupil alike 
should have in mind the relation of each subject to its 
later application. Others, and theirs are not the least 
earnest minds, would completely reverse the relation; 
be sure that your presentation of subject matter is such 
that it rouses your pupils to correct methods of thinking, 
and the utilitarian or vocational application will eo ipso 
suggest itself. 

Between these two points of view our American 
schools are oscillating; they sway incontinently from 
one scheme to another, and their educational structure 
is rendered correspondingly unsound. 

The European schools are not distracted by the same 
conflict ; their educational experts have reached the rank 
of advisers through prolonged acquaintance with actual 
teaching; they are positive as to the value of accuracy 
in fundamental attainments, and they are agreed that a 
definite system of grouping studies is best calculated to 
pave the way for the several types of activity, profes- 
sional, technical, or commercial, to which the secondary 
school student tends. Having concluded from prolonged 
reflection and experience that a certain group of studies 
best equips students, not for a specific vocation, but for 
efficiency that can be turned to satisfactory account in 
any one of a number of vocational endeavors, they pre- 
scribe definitely this group of studies ; and the public 
at large accepts the conclusions which expert opinion 



194 THE AMERICAN SECONDARY SCHOOL 

has reached; it reposes confidence in the broad, philo- 
sophic attitude of the expert as against the well-mean- 
ing, but hasty inferences of the amateur. 

There is nothing undemocratic in accepting expert 
opinion rather than dilettantism. When we allow a de- 
cisive voice in the councils of our educational boards to 
untrained opinion that is swayed by the obtrusive influ- 
ences of the moment over against the calm, reasoned con- 
victions of the trained expert, we invite the educational 
anarchy which prevails. An accidental combination of 
popular preferences may lead to-day to the acceptance of 
a policy of educational advance ; a few months hence, 
and without reason or warrant, the same amateur legisla- 
tion will, without adequate trial of merit, cancel the re- 
forms it has initiated. 

The story of our educational endeavor is rich in such 
movements within a vicious circle ; we scarcely dare wel- 
come the new thought, because we have so often seen its 
undeserving eclipse. It is not surprising that experi- 
ments, zealously undertaken in one section of the coun- 
try, are forgotten when they have been abandoned by 
their originators, and are taken up anew elsewhere, 
as though they had not previously been considered. 
An influential body of educational experts, representa- 
tive of a certain type of educational attainment and in- 
sight, would naturally record the nature and progress 
of each experiment ; they would eliminate it completely 



EDUCATIONAL POLICY OF THE SECONDARY SCHOOL 195 

if, and when, found untenable, they would retain and 
advance its meritorious features for the greatest com- 
mon good. 

The group system of studies, then, as the expression 
of expert opinion has this in its favor against a policy 
of free election in courses and subjects: it challenges 
criticism on the score of mature, unbiased reflection 
against ill-considered, incompetent preference ; it guards 
against unfounded prejudice, that is as wasteful in pre- 
mature adoption as in premature abandonment of lines 
of study. 

We are all agreed that the entire range of studies 
embraced in the secondary school curriculum cannot be 
compassed in their respective maximum of offerings by 
one and the same pupil ; choice must be made, but it 
must be choice under wise and firm direction, dictated 
by professional knowledge and experience, not by pa- 
rental whim nor by the dictates of chaotic popular senti- 
ment, least of all by the moods of the immature pupil. 

It is significant how radically different is the conception 
of electives here and elsewhere. Germany has intro- 
duced electives in the last two years of its gymnasial 
courses ; they are options in studies in which the stu- 
dents have displayed more than average ability and in- 
terest ; they are granted on the recommendation of the 
faculty, and they are counted as electives (Kompensa- 
tion), provided the pupil justifies the liberty of choice 



196 THE AMERICAN SECONDARY SCHOOL 

accorded him by performance far above the average. 
{Monatschrift fiir h'dhere Schulen, V, 18-22, and X, 
577-583, the latter a treatment on the basis of Pesta- 
lozzian doctrine.) The wisdom of such control of out- 
right election is made further manifest in the small 
number of students who register for elective courses; 
the responsibility attached to the option seems to reduce 
promptly the insistence on special aptitudes. 

What would be the effect on our elective courses in 
schools and colleges if similar standards were en- 
forced ? ^ In the question of the teacher's attitude 
toward elective courses of study and the election of 
individual studies the warning utterances of those who 
are in a position to measure the consequences cannot 
go unheeded. What Browning records in grateful terms 
of his exceptional father, 

" Who knew better than turn straight 
Learning's full flare on weak-eyed ignorance," 

is what it is the function of the sympathetic teacher to 
regulate.^ 

In his School, College, and Character, President 
LeBaron Briggs, formerly Dean of Harvard Univer- 

1 For an ardent advocacy of the elective system, vide Charles W. 
Eliot, Educational Reform, p. 132, and William T. Foster, Administration 
of the College Curriculum, Houghton Mifflin Company, 1911, chaps. IV- 
VII. 

2 President Hadley in Educational Review, Nov., 1904, pp. 331, 333. 



EDUCATIONAL POLICY OF THE SECONDARY SCHOOL 1 97 

sity, says in an essay, " Some Old-Fashioned Doubts 
about New-Fashioned Education": "No persons lay 
themselves open more recklessly to reductio ad absuv- 
dum than advocates of the elective system. Everybody 
believes in the elective system at some stage of educa- 
tion; the question is where to begin; yet extension 
after extension is advocated on general grounds of lib- 
erty (such liberty, by the way, as nobody has in active 
life), and propositions are brought forward which, if we 
accept them, give the elective system no logical end. 
Down it goes, through college, high school, and gram- 
mar school, till not even the alphabet can stop it" 

(P- 37)- 

" For any responsible work we want men of charac- 
ter — not men who from childhood up have been per- 
sonally conducted and have had their education warped 
to the indolence of their minds " (p. 46). 

" Training (p. 61) is the discipline that teaches a man 
to develop the less promising parts of his mind as well 
as the more promising: to make five talents ten, and 
two, five ; to see that in his specialty he shall work bet- 
ter and enjoy more for knowing something outside of 
his specialty ; to recognize the connection between pres- 
ent toil and future attainment, so that the hope of future 
attainment creates pleasure in present toil; to under- 
stand that nothing can be mastered without drudgery, 
and that drudgery in preparation for service is not only 



198 THE AMERICAN SECONDARY SCHOOL 

respectable, but beautiful; to be interested in every 
study, no matter how forbidding." ^ 

Incidentally he quotes with approval Dr. Martineau's 
words : " I warn you that this enervated mood (of 
choosing only agreeable studies) is the canker of manly 
thought and action." To advocate for the pupils in the 
schools the unbridled license of free election, is particu- 
larly deprecated by Dean Briggs : for intelligent choice 
at the college stage, pupils should be prepared by vigor- 
ous training that creates and develops a full sense of 
responsibility. More than individual instances it is the 
tendency that has worked, and will work, harm. It leads 
insensibly to what a brilliant teacher of scholarly parts 
(Caskie Harrison) designated the elective attitude of 
mind, the elective mode of study. His illustrations can 
be duplicated from the experience of every teacher. 
" In English composition the boy may elect to do what is 
easy, but simply to neglect the requirements of practice 
and revision, because he does not intend to be a writer ; 
perhaps he has examples at home of success without 
even epistolary correctness. When to an elective sys- 
tem of study we add the insidious perils of an elective 



1 Briggs, School, College, and Character, p. 123, quotation from Cardi- 
nal Newman. On the superficiality of exclusive specialization, vide 
Bascom, " Changes in College Life," Atlantic Monthly, June, 1903, 
p. 750, " The specialist, even in his own department, is frequently unable 
to give a collective view of truth." 



EDUCATIONAL POLICY OF THE SECONDARY SCHOOL 1 99 

mode of study and an elective attitude of mind, teachers 
find themselves trying to live and manufacture in a 
vacuum." 

The disintegration resulting from uncontrolled and 
unrelated choice militates directly against unifying 
effort in the secondary school work. The unconscious 
influence of logical sequence in work the late William T. 
Harris, in the St. Louis School Reports, 1872 (p. 64), dis- 
cussed thus : "What the mind acquires in its early stages 
will be rudimentary, but will furnish a rich native store 
for future thought when the period of reflection sets in 
stronger. The roots of the sciences and literature and 
history should go down deep into the earliest years, so 
that the unconscious influence derived thence shall assist 
in molding the taste, will, and intellect, during the most 
plastic period of growth. Without this unconscious 
molding of one's views of the world, later scientific 
and literary studies are likely to be barren." 

One need not consider the group system the final 
solution of our present-day school problem and its con- 
gested curriculum, but it points the way to a satisfac- 
tory result. It is the product of fallible human 
intelligence, but it represents at least a distinct guiding 
principle; it safeguards against incoherence and lack 
of continuity ; for irresponsibility in judgment, for the 
vagaries of untrained faculties, it substitutes the reason- 
ing of trained insight. 



200 THE AMERICAN SECONDARY SCHOOL 

Our contention here is for the fundamental fact that 
that is no election at all which without knowledge of 
their content or their service to the thinking efficiency, 
chooses some subjects and discards others ; it is license, 
and produces the usual results of thoughtless action — 
disappointment, discouragement, waste of opportunity. 

In every sphere of activity, and why not in educa- 
tion ? all reasonable men concede that expert opinion 
should dominate and direct; the layman forbears to 
solve the engineer's problems, to suggest therapeutic 
procedure to the physician, or methods of legal tech- 
nique to the lawyer ; his interference would call forth 
the sharpest reprimand ; why should it be otherwise in 
questions educational ? Doctrine and experience should 
afford a basis of professional judgment, capable of 
vindicating educational processes against amateur predi- 
lections ; if the teacher follows in the practice of his art 
certain methods whose raison d'etre he cannot justify, he 
in just so far falls short of professional equipment. The 
plea for due recognition of professional authority can 
be sustained only if those in charge of educational 
interests are able to demonstrate in argument and con- 
ference their complete command of the issues involved. 

It is a question of administration of schools rather 
than of inner organization that differentiates the German 
secondary schools with their three types of study com- 
binations (the classical Gymnasium, the Realgymnasium 



EDUCATIONAL POLICY OF THE SECONDARY SCHOOL 201 

with its Latin-scientific course, and the Oberrealschule 
with its science and modern language course) from our 
high schools. We harbor under one roof and one ad- 
ministration as many parallel courses as we can offer 
with the available teaching corps. We carry this par- 
allelism of courses so far that it persists even in high 
schools whose designation would seem to indicate 
that they are devoted to one special type of educational 
effort, as for instance, in the Commercial High School 
of New Yorkj in the Manual Training High Schools 
of New York and Brooklyn ; one cannot even say 
that the course indicated in the special title is invariably 
the dominant one.^ The system of the parallel courses 
within the same high school is not founded upon any 
educational conviction; like the coeducational plan, it 
is the outcome of the financial needs of the community.'^ 
It has been regarded as distinctly more economical to 
arrange for a community of moderate size one high 
school, and, if need be, parallel courses within its walls, 
than to organize two or three distinct high schools, each 
limited to one type of secondary instruction. When the 
entire high school attendance in a given town lies be- 
tween sixty and one hundred and fifty students (and 
this represents a great proportion of our high schools), 

1 Sadler's reasons for advocating differentiation of types in second- 
ary schools, English Special Reports, IX, 153. 

2 E. E. Brown, The Making of our Middle Schools, p. 405. 



202 THE AMERICAN SECONDARY SCHOOL 

it is obvious that not more than one high school can be 
provided from public funds ; in such cases it would be 
disastrous if a single course without any opportunity for 
parallelism or option were insisted on. 

Germany, with its strict maintenance of sharply dif- 
ferentiated school types, has suffered certain disadvan- 
tages which it is now engaged in remedying ; a study of 
the educational map of Prussia,^ e.g. on which are 
registered the location and type of each secondary 
school in the kingdom, shows that within a radius of 
many hundred square miles the secondary pupils often 
find only one type of school available, usually the 
classical gymnasium, and must forego the opportunities 
of the scientific or modern school type. The remedy 
adopted has been an instructive one ; no new classical 
gymnasia are being installed anywhere in the rural dis- 
tricts, and a number of those in existence in small towns 
are being transformed into Realgymnasia or Oberreal- 
schulen, especially in the industrial sections. 

Our most serious difficulties in shaping the educa- 
tional policy of our secondary schools lie in the fact 
that we have failed in too many cases to make clear 
to ourselves how we can secure for the various subjects 
the best educational results in view of the pupils' actual 
attainments; we have been told by the next higher 

1 Karte deroffentUchen hoheren Lehranstalten im Konigreich Preussen, 
von M. Killmann herausgegeben (Berlin, Reimer). 



EDUCATIONAL POLICY OF THE SECONDARY SCHOOL 203 

group of institutions, the colleges and the technical 
schools, in fairly definite terms, what knowledge they 
demand of the pupils for entrance ; to give them this 
knowledge, this power, has seemed to most high 
schools the ultimate goal to strive for, and as the 
attainment of this knowledge has proved a serious 
tax upon the energies and capacities of the teachers 
and, in consequence, of the pupils, no room is left 
for the consideration of these subjects as parts of a 
larger educational scheme. 

What the college authorities have announced as their 
requirements is a minimum ; that nothing short of this 
would suffice should be the natural assumption ; and 
therefore in the interest of the pupil's later welfare 
and of the standing of the school that sends him forth 
one might reasonably expect that something very much 
more comprehensive than this minimum would be 
striven for by the school, so that the fulfillment of 
the minimum requirement would be but an incident 
in a richer program. 

For various reasons this has not been the case ; the 
minimum requirement has become in fact a maximum 
of desirable attainment; the colleges have interpreted 
their own minimum standards in very elastic fashion, 
have accepted offerings far below their nominal stand- 
ards, and weak and ineffective schools have all too 
gladly recognized in this temporizing attitude of the 



204 ^HE AMERICAN SECONDARY SCHOOL 

colleges their privilege to do superficial and unsatis- 
factory work. The conditioning of students at college 
entrance which has undermined the efficiency of college 
work in the first year, if not beyond ^ (Pritchett, 4th 
Annual Report Carnegie Foundation for the Advance- 
ment of Teaching, p. 141), has in like fashion sapped 
the efficiency of many secondary schools ; the possibil- 
ities of evading the consequences of inaccurate and 
indifferent work seem too numerous. 

If it were made clear (i.) that the minimum stipu- 
lated would be upheld with relentless persistence, and 
(2) that this minimum of attainment measured mainly in 
terms of intellectual power could not be safely realized 
except as incidental to a very much broader course, 
the degrading spectacle of time spent in gauging the 
minimum of effort required for a passing mark would 
disappear. Intellectual power is a rather intangible 
thing to measure, and the only safeguard of school 
and pupil should lie in comprehensive work, within 
which the more specific test would naturally fall. The 
familiar standards of West Point and Annapolis illus- 
trate the aim we have in view ; entering students who 



1 " The moment there is introduced into a college class a consider- 
able proportion of ill-prepared students, the difficulties of instruction 
are enormously increased, and the general good of the body which 
the college most directly seeks to serve is sacrificed to give a chance 
to an entirely different class." 



EDUCATIONAL POLICY OF THE SECONDARY SCHOOL 20^ 

have met the minimum requirements, but have not 
developed a much more comprehensive background 
of intellectual capacity, fail frequently to cope with 
the exigencies of the course. 

A marked advance, making for more rational stand- 
ards of admission, for the encouragement of independ- 
ent programs by secondary schools, and for the abolition 
of the disgraceful subterfuge of the conditioning system, 
is indicated in the new system of Harvard entering ex- 
aminations^ {^School Review, June, 1911, pp. 412-413). 

It has been the fashion for the secondary school to 
throw the odium for its own ill-balanced courses of instruc- 
tion on the college requirements ; there has been much 
foolish talk about the dictatorial attitude of the colleges 
on questions in which they lack practical acquaintance. 
If the colleges have added to their statements of require- 
ments rather specific indications of a desirable procedure 
within the sphere of secondary schools, it has been 
due to an absence of agreement, a lack of definite 
educational policy, among secondary teachers, that is 
entitled to serious recognition as the expression of 
a great body of educational experts in the secondary 
field. 

As long as each city's secondary schools reflect 
merely the individual views of the officer temporarily 
at their head, whose unstable tenure of office operates 

1 Report of president of Harvard College for 1909-1910, 254 £f. 



206 THE AMERICAN SECONDARY SCHOOL 

directly against the initiation of far-reaching policies, 
and as long as our preference for individualism en- 
courages differentiation in school organization rather 
than the frank adoption of general governing principles, 
to which minor individual idiosyncracies may well be 
sacrificed, our progress toward homogeneousness in 
school effort will be disheartening. 

We do not plead for the centralizing activity of the 
experts in the Prussian educational ministry, though 
their plans and modifications of plans are actuated 
solely by their convictions on educational efficiency, nor 
for the formal classifying tendency of the French gov- 
ernmental schools. Our teachers cannot brook, we 
often hear, bureaucratic control in the elaboration of 
educational schemes; but we ought to have an agree- 
ment in policy, reached by conferences of the leading 
secondary school experts of the country. Local con- 
ditions, local preferences are insignificant in the con- 
sideration of such questions, as "How shall physics 
and chemistry be taught in the high school ? " " In 
what sequence and with what distribution of time 
shall the mathematical subjects occur .?" " How many 
years, and periods in each year, shall be devoted to 
history? " "What consitutes a sound secondary history 
course, and by what methods of instruction shall the 
teacher secure his results.?" "What is to be the 
aim of our English work ? By the use of what lines 



EDUCATIONAL POLICY OF THE SECONDARY SCHOOL 207 

of work, and the omission of what considerations, can 
we make it genuinely valuable ? " " How are modern 
languages to be taught? for what reasons? What 
is the needful equipment of the teacher for the task ? " 

Imagine that by a series of conferences initiated by 
a score of cities, an authoritative body of school experts 
reached definite conclusions, as did the Committee of 
Ten in 1892, and that a larger number of city school 
administrations expressed their willingness to adopt for 
a period of ten years such a report as the basis of a 
rearrangement of curricula ; that a frank determination 
to give these convictions and suggestions the fullest 
trial were reached ; it is safe to say that the impetus of 
such a concerted movement would mark an advance 
that would be reflected in more effective teaching 
throughout the whole country. Nowhere is the force 
of concerted example more potent. Then it would 
matter little whether this or that superintendent hap- 
pened to be in control in a city in a given year. Why 
should that which is recognized as good teaching, as 
rational arrangement of subject matter in Indianapolis 
and in San Francisco not be as valid for Buffalo and 
New York ? 

Is it not absurd, on the contrary, to assume that there 
are special educational panaceas for each community? 
Would not the very existence of such a conference 
make for the adoption of larger educational views and 



208 THE AMERICAN SECONDARY SCHOOL 

eliminate narrow sectional prejudices ? This suggestion 
does not involve absolute uniformity. There would be 
ample room for differentiation within certain great lines 
of agreement. 

The experience of the sub-committees that con- 
tributed to the report of the Committee of Ten is a 
valuable one for all similar efforts. It had been 
expected that radical divergences of opinion and theory- 
would be disclosed that would make unanimous recom- 
mendations impossible. On the contrary, in the prog- 
ress of discussion the differences proved to be of 
negligible importance, the points of agreement numer- 
ous ; it was a question of definite formulation of belief. 
The very effort at reaching an understanding leads to a 
sifting of essentials from non-essentials, gives emphasis 
to a broader educational conception than is likely to be 
reached by any separate community. It is our way of 
advancing, and it is a very good one, this fashion of 
abiding by the judgment of those we trust. No indi- 
vidual city superintendent, no local body of associate 
superintendents, can take rank in this widest sense as 
educational experts; admirably informed, excellently 
intentioned, they cannot but be local educational experts, 
until in such conferences they emancipate themselves 
from the consideration of local problems, and breathe 
the freer air of a larger educational legislation. 
The educational expert, who would stand outside of 



EDUCATIONAL POLICY OF THE SECONDARY SCHOOL 209 

any single city school system, but who combined with 
thorough study and philosophic grasp of the large 
educational questions a knowledge of the social and 
economic situation of each community, who would be 
ready to stake his professional reputation on the sound- 
ness of his suggestions, such an educational expert, for 
instance, as England possesses in Sir Michael Sadler, 
might seem to some a more effective agent of reorgani- 
zation than the larger body of conferees suggested above, 
but what city superintendent in the United States would 
be prepared to subordinate his views to those of even 
so acknowledged an authority, what local community 
would invite the diagnosis of such a man and adopt 
outright his remedial suggestions ? ^ 

In an addition to this chapter an effort has been made 
to point out the value of Sadler's expert judgment in its 
suggestions of improvement of the secondary school situ- 
ation in England. 

It is generally admitted that the problem of the sec- 
ondary school course that leads to the doors of the col- 
lege or scientific school affords relatively the least 
difficulties ; with the goal definitely in view, and the re- 



1 The bit of contemporary history connected with the publication of the 
Report of the Commission on the Baltimore Schools (United States 
Bureau of Education, Bulletin No. 4, 1911) and the action of the munici- 
pal authorities {Educational Reviezu, Nov. and Dec, 1911) may serve to 
confirm the statements in the text. 



2IO THE AMERICAN SECONDARY SCHOOL 

quirements stated in fairly comprehensible terms, it be- 
comes primarily a question of adjustment to accomplish 
the ends sought in the time available, and to approximate 
as well as possible to the satisfactory attainment of these 
ends. Accommodation to a definite prescription, espe- 
cially when successive generations of teachers are con- 
fronted with the same task, is not impossible, and the 
preparatory course represents altogether a fairly reason- 
able arrangement of the secondary studies. 

But what shall be the scheme for those who do not 
intend, cannot afford to complete the preparatory sec- 
ondary school course ? And what shall be its relation- 
ship to the college preparatory course .-' The genius of 
the educational expert, it would seem, might well be ex- 
pended upon a study of these relations.^ 

Here we are at the parting of the ways, and we must 
reach a definite standpoint to determine in which direc- 
tion the studies for the great mass of secondary pupils 
shall tend. Here is our crucial problem, and the com- 
plete subordination of the interests of this majority to 
the needs of the future college and scientific school 
student is responsible for the revulsion of sentiment in 
the community that finds expression in the cry for voca- 
tional training. There is no doubt that the high school 
can lead by modification of method in a number of studies 

1 C. O. Davis, " Reorganization of Secondary Education," Educa- 
tional Review, Oct., 1911, 270-301. 



EDUCATIONAL POLICY OF THE SECONDARY SCHOOL 211 

more directly to vocational efficiency, but its central 
purpose would be eliminated if it became entirely, or in 
one of its departments, a vocational school; at that 
moment the fundamental thought, out of which second- 
ary instruction developed, the creation of intellectual 
initiative, would be replaced by a new aim, that of 
directing effort upon the acquisition of earning capacity. 

The adoption of the new name, vocational school, can- 
not obscure the fact that what its advocates call for is a 
trade school, a school whose training for a definite occu- 
pation renders the pupil at its close capable to perform 
remunerative work. Commissioner Snedden of Massa- 
chusetts has distinguished once for all between liberal 
and vocational education.^ "Vocational schools have 
their place in the educational efforts of the community, 
collateral with our secondary schools in the age to which 
they minister, but entirely different in aim ; they frankly 
specialize to one distinct purpose, that of leading by the 
most immediate path to productive work." 

Several facts, as we see the situation, stand out 
prominently ; there is a distinct danger that in striving 
for the acquisition of vocational efficiency, we uproot the 
general aims of our secondary schools, i. Vocational 
schools will be of little service, unless the courses of in- 

1 Cf. Snedden, David S., " The Problem of Vocational Education " 
{Riverside Educational Monographs, Houghton Mifflin Company), pp. 
71-81. 



212 THE AMERICAN SECONDARY SCHOOL 

struction are shaped uncompromisingly to the develop- 
ment of skill and intelligence in a specific vocation ; 
they must frankly abandon the pretense to combine with 
their aims those of a liberal, cultural course, otherwise 
we shall again develop a hybrid institution that is neither 
successfully vocational, nor genuinely liberalizing. 

2. In any community, even though its interests be 
predominantly of one type, say the shoe or the weaving 
industry, a single type of vocational school that prepares 
for a single industry only, is unsatisfactory ; it would re- 
strict vocational training to the prevailing interest, and 
make no adequate provision for the numerous subsidiary 
or supplemental industries, in each one of which equally 
adequate training should be afforded. How many of 
our communities appreciate the significance of this fact ? 
Munich with its forty-six different kinds of trade schools 
affords a case in point ; it is still organizing ; it does not 
pretend to have covered every possibility ; for every new 
industrial demand it is prepared to open up a special 
school of vocational training. 

In our communities in particular, with their mobile 
population, it is unwise, unprofitable to restrict the 
vocational outlook of our young people even by the pre- 
vailing industrial tendency of the town. How often 
have economic conditions that are beyond local control 
completely effaced the dominant industries ! An un- 
foreseen combination of circumstances may initiate new 



EDUCATIONAL POLICY OF THE SECONDARY SCHOOL 213 

industries with their new demands, for which the pre- 
vious vocational trend of the schools affords no technical 
equipment. This danger is a very vital one, far more 
imminent in our newer civilization than in the more 
conservative communities of Europe. 

And finally, the current belief that such vocational 
schools are easily manned, that competent teachers 
of vocational subjects are readily secured and are 
less expensive than teachers of advanced cultural sub- 
jects, is without foundation. All over Europe the ques- 
tion of the supply of teachers and of their special 
training for their difficult task is one of the greatest prob- 
lems of the vocational school. (Report Commissioner 
of Education, 1910, 322-323.) The combination of 
a high order of technical proficiency with pedagogic 
skill in presentation is a very unusual one, difficult to 
secure, more difficult to retain; the vocational school 
can tolerate, less than the average cultural secondary 
school, teachers of mediocre attainments.^ There is no 
escape from the exacting demands of the shop or the 
factory; a vocational school that does not properly 
qualify for a given vocation is self-condemned. And 
yet we all know of courses in the manual arts whose 
teachers fail either as adepts in craftsmanship or in the 

1 The account of the various efforts made in Berlin, Munich, 
Diisseldorf, and elsewhere to develop the artistic as well as the peda- 
gogic capacity of these teachers merits detailed consideration. 



214 THE AMERICAN SECONDARY SCHOOL 

art of imparting, of commercial courses whose teachers 
lack completely the intellectual grasp that is needed to 
vitalize the larger concept of commerce. Is this type 
of teacher likely to initiate satisfactorily the new type 
of vocational school ? 

What then are we to regard as the policy of wisdom 
in our school system ? A vocational school cannot by 
its very nature be a secondary school; if we retain our 
belief in the value of a prolonged course of school work 
that shall disclose the variety of intellectual interests 
inherent in a broader outlook upon life, then we must 
adhere to the initial conception, out of which our second- 
ary schools have grown ; they have been supposed to 
encourage intellectual efficiency, and sympathy with 
cultural ideals ; they may retain this prerogative, and 
yet combine with it the worthy aim to prepare for the 
economic efficiency of their pupils. But they cannot 
subvert the relations and make economic efficiency the 
sole determining measure, with the intellectual product 
merely incidental to it. There is nothing discreditable, 
if individual or community prefer this new relationship ; 
in a certain blind, groping fashion many have probably 
sanctioned the secondary school in the expectation of 
just such a relationship. They have mistaken its pur- 
pose ; perhaps we have far more secondary schools than 
we need. Eliminate them, where their functioning 
makes no appeal to the communities that have supported 



EDUCATIONAL POLICY OF THE SECONDARY SCHOOL 21$ 

them, and transform them unhesitatingly into vocational 
or trade schools ; but let the secondary school, as we 
conceive its mission, not fall between two stools, ineffec- 
tive to serve either end. 

There must be a clear understanding as to the distri- 
bution of emphasis in our secondary school work. The 
utilitarian trend is in every way meritorious ; what we 
object to is to have the mere standard of the market 
accentuated and made paramount over the broadening, 
developing opportunity of the secondary school.^ With 
Dr. Snedden {The Problem of Vocational Education) we 
admit that " some of the studies which contribute to 
liberal education may be so handled as to give a basis, 
or approach, or means of approach to subsequent liberal 
education," but with him we insist that "vocational 
education is a supplemental form of liberal education " ; 
the secondary school is not to give vocational education, 
but to shape the training of the pupil in such a fashion as 
to prepare him for vocational efficiency. In an optimistic 
survey of American educational effort (" The Unrest 
in Secondary Education in Germany and Elsewhere," 
in English Special Reports, IX, 155) Sir Michael 
Sadler asserts that " the leaders of American education 
show a united front against any narrowly commercial 
spirit in the secondary schools ; the business atmosphere 

1 F. G. Bonser, Fundamental Values in Industrial Education {^Q3iCh.QXS 
College Bulletin, 3d Series, No. 6). 



2l6 THE AMERICAN SECONDARY SCHOOL 

in America is already so tense that it is the duty of the 
secondary school rather to provide a counteracting 
influence than to intensify the interest in commercial 
matters." It is the bread-and-butter idea he has in mind, 
and the clamor for purely vocational ends (in the indus- 
tries as well as in commerce) is just now an imminent 
danger to the deliberate unfolding which is inseparable 
from the proper prosecution of secondary studies. 
There is nothing more narrowing than the insistent 
demand " What is the tangible usefulness of this subject, 
of this or that phase of the subject ? " There is something 
quite beyond the weighable and measurable efficacy of 
each educational step ; the development of power, the 
attainment of power, cannot be expressed in so many 
units, and yet it gives larger and more satisfactory 
results than manipulative skill in any one vocation. 
Better than theory in estimating the value of educational 
procedure is the record of results. 

Germany knows that in view of the numerous voca- 
tions the probability of correctly determining at the 
outset of the secondary school on just what vocational 
work the ultimate activity of a pupil had best be con- 
centrated is most remote; it realizes that it would 
restrict educational opportunity if the process of vo- 
cational specialization were begun too early ; its Real- 
schulen have laid the foundation for its phenomenal 
advance in commerce, industry, and the arts, without 



EDUCATIONAL POLICY OF THE SECONDARY SCHOOL 217 

the slightest concession to immediate vocational ends. 
Their Realschulen prepare for vocational efficiency 
without training in vocation (Ware, Educational Founda- 
tions of Trade and Industry, Appleton, 1901, p. 100) ; 
they are not narrowly utilitarian; they initiate into a 
consideration of the real issues of life by methods that 
are scientific. The Germans contend that, in as far 
as their instruction is liberalizing, it contributes to 
practical efficiency ; their stress is laid upon the train- 
ing of the faculties, upon securing a basis of accurate, 
interrelated information ; upon ability to arrive at sound 
conclusions. They keep the gross conception of utility 
in the background, but develop capacity all the more 
effectively. 

Those who advocate the subordination of every other 
educational consideration to the test of utility will do 
well to consider the outcome of Germany's educational 
methods. The enlightened opinion of England has ac- 
cepted the doctrine of Germany as the true solution of 
present-day requirements, and is planning a reconstruc- 
tion of its secondary schools on the same lines. 

A phase of this reconstruction which is extremely 
significant comes to us with the authority of Mr. Sad- 
ler, who has probably devoted more thought to the 
problem than any living Englishman. He realizes that 
many boys and girls need guidance beyond the usual 
limits of the elementary school; they cannot continue 



2l8 THE AMERICAN SECONDARY SCHOOL 

school studies beyond the age of fifteen or sixteen, when 
they are to enter upon some remunerative pursuit. To 
give them fragments of studies which bear their fruit 
only when pursued to completion at the age of eighteen 
or nineteen, involves loss of time to the pupil and the 
school; the more generous outlook of the secondary 
studies, planned for a long succession of years, does not 
admit of proper presentation in proportional segments 
of information. 

A differentiation in aim and method is considered 
imperative ; it has led to the recommendation of a new 
type of intermediate schools, the Higher Elementary 
Schools, the scheme of which embraces a widening 
cultural tendency within the limits of a three years' 
course; in such schools the trend toward vocational 
interests is recognized, though it is not allowed to dom- 
inate. To a certain degree these schools correspond to 
the successful higher grade schools of Scotland.^ An 
outline of the first two years of this three-year course^ 
combines with such subjects as geography, nature study, 
drawing, practical physics, elementary mathematics, 
handicraft exercises, etc., the demand for strong teach- 

* Sadler, Report on Secojtdary and Higher Education in Derbyshire, 1905, 
pp. 13-23 ; Report on Secondary and Higher Education in Hampshire, 

1904, p. 40. 

2 Sadler, Report on Secondary and Higher Education in Newcastle, 

1905, p. 36. 



EDUCATIONAL POLICY OF THE SECONDARY SCHOOL 219 

ing in the mother tongue, for the cultivation of a taste 
for good literature, the development of a sense of civic 
duty, and for all pupils the curriculum should include 
French as an optional subject; the latter would give 
the pupils a better understanding of their own language, 
and would widen their intellectual outlook and sym- 
pathies by helping them to appreciate the national life 
and ideals of a great foreign people. 

The Higher Elementary School marks a great con- 
structive advance upon the content of the elementary 
school, furnishing a body of information and a basis 
of intellectual interests that will justify a prolongation 
by several years of school life ; this information, it is 
expected, will prove practically serviceable, but the 
narrow utilitarian standpoint is distinctly kept out of 
sight; anything like premature specialization is strongly 
deprecated.^ 

It is significant that such a course is supposed to 
make its popular appeal to the English mind by the use 
of the term " Higher Elementary Schools" ; parents and 
pupils are mor^e likely to be attracted to it by the fact that 
it is designated as an enlargement, an expansion of the 
previous scope of the elementary school, and the re- 
sponsibility of public provision for it will thus encounter 
the least opposition. 

1 Sadler, Report on Secondary and Higher Education in Essex, 1906, 
pp. 66-67. 



220 THE AMERICAN SECONDARY SCHOOL 

With us in the United States, though we approved 
of the scheme and the subjects embraced in it, the very 
name would be fatal to its popularity ; neither pupils 
nor the general public would sanction a classification 
that would not seem to advance pupils into an insti- 
tution of an entirely new character; whether even the 
name "Junior High School," if reserved for such a type 
of school, would not be received with some resentment, 
it is difficult to foretell. 

It is not to be expected that the average citizen will 
at once realize the advantages of a course that does not 
obtrusively lead into practical utilities; it requires a 
more philosophic survey of the situation to anticipate 
the more substantial advantage that will accrue from a 
wisely elaborated scheme. It is, therefore, the duty of 
our educational leaders to plant themselves firmly on 
this doctrine and prove its value to the uninitiated. 
From them, above all, must come the detailed plan of 
educational reform ; a surrender of the doctrine of a 
liberalizing education in deference to the momentary 
tendency of utilitarianism would end, as similar extreme 
movements have resulted, in disappointment and disaster. 

The remedy for the betterment of educational condi- 
tions is not found in upheaval, but in careful adjust- 
ment; previous experiences have established the fact 
that the revolutionary spirit passes but too readily into 
the reactionary, when its anticipations are not realized. 



EDUCATIONAL POLICY OF THE SECONDARY SCHOOL 221 

In his admirable treatise, The Teaching of Geometry, 
(Ginn & Co., 1911) Professor David Eugene Smith says 
of geometry teaching what may well be applied to the 
whole secondary curriculum in view of the vocational 
demand : " Continually to destroy, continually to follow 
strange gods, always to decry the best of the old, and 
to have no well-considered aim in the teaching of a 
subject — this is to join the forces of reaction, to waste 
our time, to be recreant to our trust, to blind ourselves 
to the failures of the past, and to confess our weakness 
as teachers." 

" The only possible basis for a successful system of 
higher education (be it commercial, technical, or profes- 
sional) is to be found in an intellectually thorough, 
readily accessible, and morally vigorous, system of sec- 
ondary education." (Sadler, " Recent Developments in 
Higher Commercial Education in Germany," English 
Special Reports, IX, 525.) 

In this view many of our most thoughtful educators 
concur ; they have observed with great apprehension 
the wave of unreflecting popular enthusiasm in favor of 
vocational work in our secondary schools ; they fear its 
effects upon the cause of sound educational advance, 
which depends on evolution from within rather than on 
unmatured substitution of a new tendency. They ap- 
preciate the desirability of advancing industrial effi- 
ciency, but it is to be coupled with the ideal of a liberal 



222 THE AMERICAN SECONDARY SCHOOL 

education ; to weaken the standards of intellectual dis- 
cipline which is acknowledged the distinguishing mark 
of the secondary school, is to prepare the way for its 
ultimate extinction. 

The function of the secondary school with its length- 
ening educational opportunities is to prepare for life (as 
the phrase goes) ; for college, the technical school, the 
professions. It is not expected to turn out a finished 
product for the higher schools, neither should it under- 
take to turn out a finished vocational expert in any prac- 
tical occupation; it prepares for one as for the other 
by giving the intellectual basis through intellectual 
disciphne. 

Adhering to this conception, we may remove from 
consideration every scheme that would subordinate 
.mental progress to manual dexterity. Let us afford op- 
portunity for the acquisition of mechanical proficiency, 
but it must be directed by intelligence ; otherwise we 
sacrifice the fundamental characteristic of the second- 
ary school, the training of the reasoning faculties, the 
awakening of a genuine desire for knowledge per se. 

The idea of the shop, it seems to me, should not 
enter into the plan of the secondary school ; lay the 
foundation, if you will, for intellectual efficiency and 
skill in the shop ; the manual arts furnish the basis for 
such skill, but the differentiation which it is the privi- 
lege of the secondary school course to create, rests upon 



EDUCATIONAL POLICY OF THE SECONDARY SCHOOL 223 

the connection established between manual dexterity 
and an intellectual organization of the work in which 
the scientific attitude plays a vital r61e. 

It seems undesirable from the viewpoint of the 
present author for the secondary school to divest itself 
of its cultural socializing tendency ; the frankly voca- 
tional aim should be met in communities that need it, 
that worship it, by the organization of separate voca- 
tional schools. Definiteness in aim is what our school 
systems need; vacillation, uncertainty in educational 
policy, deprives our work of its compelling force. We 
can maintain a definite aim, and exercise withal consid- 
erable latitude in its application, but on the main issue 
we must stand firm ; in the enlargement of the mental 
horizon, the stimulation of intellectual preferences and 
moral responsiveness, the privilege of the secondary 
school lies; this is its object — all other results to be 
attained while this central aim is before our vision, are 
incidental to it — the successful entrance into college, or 
into immediate vocational activity. To revert once 
more to Lord Kelvin's statement of the purpose of 
higher education, it is safe to say that juxtaposition 
does not imply equality; "to make life worth living" 
constitutes the mission of higher education, but to its 
complete realization it is necessary that man shall have 
wherewith to live, i.e. be enabled by his education to 
earn a livelihood. 



224 THE AMERICAN SECONDARY SCHOOL 

Assuming, then, that a broadening of intellectual rela- 
tions is fundamental to secondary school work, we are 
confronted with the question, Will any and every sub- 
ject indiscriminately and in equal degree answer this 
need ? The natural answer to this query would be, cer- 
tainly not. The majority report of the Committee of 
Ten, by the weight of its authority, has given currency 
to a contrary opinion. It says (p. 33): "On the theory 
that all the subjects are to be considered equivalent in 
educational rank for the purposes of admission to col- 
lege, it would make no difference which subjects he had 
chosen from the program — he would have had four 
years of strong and effective mental training." 

It is apparent from this statement that the evaluation 
of the subjects in the curriculum is reduced to a 
mechanical formula; its percentage of value in the 
educational scheme is supposed to correspond to the 
percentage of time devoted to it in the course. A pro-' 
test against this point of view by a minority of the 
committee (President Baker) was recorded at the time, 
but produced little or no impression. (Report Com- 
mittee of Ten, pp. 56-58) " I cannot indorse expressions 
that appear to sanction the idea that the choice of sub- 
jects may be a matter of comparative indifference. . . . 
All such statements are based upon the theory that, 
for purposes of general education, one study is as good 
as another — a theory which makes education formal and 



EDUCATIONAL POLICY OF THE SECONDARY SCHOOL 225 

does not consider the nature and value of the con- 
tent," etc. 

The contention of the majority represents a first, but 
extremely crude, plan of standardizing the contents of 
the curriculum ; if it had been announced as merely 
tentative, it might have gained ^acceptance as a measure 
ad interim until further consideration had led to a 
sounder basis of evaluation. Proclaimed, however, as a 
definite guiding principle, it is false, subversive of 
sound educational creed. 

Let us examine the logic of this doctrine. If five 
periods per week through four years are devoted to 
Latin, and one year of five periods to physics, is Latin 
to be rated at four times the educational value of 
physics .'' But assume that physics is undertaken in 
the last year of the course, how much of the first three 
years' intellectual gain from the Latin, in method of 
acquirement and general maturity, helps to make the 
content of the physics course an experience of rel- 
atively high value, though it has been pursued for but 
a single year } Or again, if the last of three years in 
Greek opens to the mind of the student the first real 
taste of Greek literary spirit in the revelation of the 
Homeric world (which even a dry-as-dust could not 
completely rob of its charm), does this year really 
measure just one third of the educational value of ele- 
mentary Greek 1 Or is it not rather true that all 

Q 



226 THE AMERICAN SECONDARY SCHOOL 

numerical valuation is at fault, that the gain to the 
student in this last year, though it cannot be secured 
without the previous foundation work, is out of all pro- 
portion to the previous attainment? Suppose once 
more that the high school course is so constituted that 
but two of five periods per week can be assigned to 
history : will the educational value of this subject be 
identical, whether these two years are grouped at the 
beginning or at the end of the high school course ? 

An adjustment by percentages of time allotment omits 
furthermore from consideration the individuality of the 
teacher : a subject which is not ordinarily accepted as 
of vital interest may transcend, because of the stimulus 
of an enthusiastic teacher, other subjects that are 
ordinarily presumed to be of greater value, and may by a 
process of reflex interest prove the only means of awak- 
ening appreciation for the general aims of the second- 
ary school. The cases are not infrequent in which a 
teacher of distinctly original mind transfuses a subject 
that has been considered dull and unattractive in its 
earlier stages, and transforms into ardent workers those 
who seemed hopelessly apathetic ; the magic touch of a 
teacher's personality has frequently aroused linguistic 
or mathematical tastes, where the pupil's native apti- 
tudes have not been sufficiently marked as a moving 
impulse. The elusive factor of individuality can, of 
course, not guide us in determining the significance we 



EDUCATIONAL POLICY OF THE SECONDARY SCHOOL 227 

are to attach to certain subjects in the curriculum, for 
we must shape our calculations by average, not excep- 
tional, teaching faculty ; by standards, not by the for- 
tuitous presence of a teaching genius. It would be as 
unwise to adopt the purely mechanical standard of time 
relation as to substitute for it the vague standard of 
personal interest ; to make that the central subject of a 
school's interest which is best taught in it, is to banish 
system. 

It will be well, then, to abandon every attempt to 
express in specific terms of percentage the value of the 
several subjects. Does, or does not, a subject contribute 
in its presentation to an enlargement of intellectual out- 
look .-' On the answer to that question hinges its educa- 
tional value. It would mean the exclusion of subjects 
that contribute nothing to intellectual breadth, that are 
valuable only as technique. To this category we should 
unhesitatingly assign stenography and typewriting ; it 
is not because they lead to immediate pecuniary advan- 
tage that we would exclude them, but because they fur- 
nish little or no intellectual stimulus. There are other 
subjects of the secondary curriculum in behalf of which 
emphasis is laid upon their practical utility, the subjects 
in the domestic science and art departments, bookkeep- 
ing, commercial law, drawing, manual arts, but each one 
of them can and should be vitalized beyond the rule-of- 
thumb application by the series of intellectual concepts 



228 THE AMERICAN SECONDARY SCHOOL 

that underlie. Such concepts may disappear momen- 
tarily in practice, but once evolved they may be appealed 
to at any moment toward the reconstruction of prin- 
ciples. 

Herein seems to lie a safe criterion for the subjects 
in the secondary school curriculum, and a directive for 
the spirit in which their presentation should be con- 
ceived; we may train the capacity to utilize them, we 
must make them the means of enlarging intellectual 
sympathies ; Latin or English mechanically taught are 
in this aspect as sterile in educational value as the ma- 
nipulations of the shop that are purely digital perform- 
ances. 

If our high school teaching of Latin or French or 
mathematics [were to create merely manipulators of the 
materials furnished in those subjects, of vocabularies, 
grammatical forms, of accurately memorized definitions 
and theorems, there would be little to be said in favor 
of these subjects as fosterers of expanding intellectual 
interests; if it does not succeed in arousing distinct 
pleasure, the joy of the enlarged vision, the new mental 
experience, and the growing capacity to incorporate 
new groups of interest with previous acquisition, it fails 
in creating educational values.^ Of the existence of 
these values in the subjects that have been previously 
named as constants, no sensible man entertains a doubt ; 

1 D. E. Smith, Teaching of Geometry, p. 26. 



EDUCATIONAL POLICY OF THE SECONDARY SCHOOL 229 

in making them educationally potent, must be mani- 
fested the power of the teacher. 

The pages of Shakespeare, Homer, Moliere, Euclid, may 
be but dead repositories of the unparalleled achievements 
of the world's great intellects, and the pupil may garner 
no thought from the printed page that reproduces their 
contributions to the light of the world ; it is the teacher 
whose own insight interprets their significance, whose 
living response to their influence is kindled to enthusiasm 
in the ambition to arouse a kindred response in his 
pupils. At times a rare soul among adolescents may 
feel this inspiration without the mediation of a teacher, 
but that would always be an exception, and it is the 
province and privilege of the teacher to create the 
atmosphere in which knowledge and appreciation grow 
and thrive ; even the open page of nature, in the organic 
and inorganic world, discloses the secret of its complex- 
ities most readily under the furthering guidance of the 
teacher ; his living interest enlivens by personal experi- 
ence the formalism of the textbook. The school, the 
secondary school above all, calls for the personal touch of 
the teacher ; the awakening of the adolescent soul needs 
the live teacher, with the textbook as an humble sub- 
sidiary. 



EXCURSUS I 

The Continuation School 

It is worth our while carefully to examine successful 
systems of vocational schools, before we commit our- 
selves to a transformation of our secondary schools into 
this new type of schools. The continuation schools of 
Germany, and especially those of Munich,^ that have 
attracted general attention by definiteness of organiza- 
tion, represent schools of the vocational type ; they aim 
to promote the efficiency of apprentices in the various 
crafts and occupations that are practiced in Munich ; 
between forty and fifty different types of industrial 
effort are provided for, each by one or several schools 
specially equipped in teachers and mechanical outfit to 
serve its specific ends. The professed purpose of each one 
of these schools is to furnish skilled labor and intelligent 
direction in a particular industry or trade, with a fixed 
course of study appropriate to its special needs. The 
name mono-technical schools, sometimes applied to them, 
indicates their very specific character. These schools 
are independent of the general school system, and serve 

1 Kerschensteiner, in Bulletin No. 14. of National Association for the 
Promotion of Industrial Educatioti. 

230 



THE CONTINUATION SCHOOL 23 1 

entirely different ends ; to their pupils who have already 
chosen a vocation or trade they give an opportunity by 
the creation of intelligent interest to rise from unfavor- 
able economic conditions to the more remunerative 
rewards that attend upon skill and technical initiative. 

They are reared upon the substructure of the elemen- 
tary school, some of whose subjects they find themselves 
compelled to repeat and modify, but they are differentiated 
sharply from the usual type of secondary instruction, in 
that the relation of all instruction to the requirements 
of industrial life is exclusively kept in view. This totally 
different character between the vocational and the 
normal secondary school cannot be more impressively 
illustrated than by this one fact, the assignment of con- 
trol of the two types of schools to entirely different 
administrative bodies; thus, in Prussia {vide Report 
Commissioner of Education, 1910, I, 301-343) the con- 
tinuation schools are under the direction of the ministry 
of commerce and industry, and not under the control 
of the ministry of education, and it has become neces- 
sary to organize within the department of commerce 
and industry an educational department sui generis. 

In recent discussions on changes in the secondary 
curriculum there has been evident a tendency to conceive 
of the high school with a vocational trend as a continu- 
ation school. It may not be out of place, therefore, to 
show at this point why no existing or contemplated form 



232 THE AMERICAN SECONDARY SCHOOL 

of continuation school should be classed as a secondary 
school.^ 

The ages of the young people whom it is intended to 
benefit are usually those of pupils in attendance at the 
secondary schools, but they have either failed to com- 
plete the elementary school at the age when they are 
permitted by the law to turn to a vocation, or else, hav- 
ing completed it, have at the moment no desire or no 
capacity to carry on studies of a more advanced character 
except in so far as they stand in direct relation to their 
vocational careers. In both cases the intellectual equip- 
ment they have acquired is insufificient, unless it is 
augmented, to prevent the majority from sinking to 
the level of the untrained laborer whose chances of 
growth and advancement are of the slightest. 

The commonwealth that recognizes the economic needs 
of these young people cannot rest content with the edu- 
cational opportunities they have hitherto enjoyed; the 
prospect of its own economic welfare must impel to 
renewed effort to promote the vocational efficiency of 
its youth. A new standpoint is reached when the boy 
or girl realizes that increasing remuneration is directly 
contingent on intellectual power or vocational ability, 
and a new impulse toward the acquisition of knowledge 
arises; a modified scheme of instruction must utilize 
this impulse for the good of the community and the 

1 English special Reports, I, 479-510, 585 ff. 



THE CONTINUATION SCHOOL 233 

individual. This kind of instruction must frankly ad- 
just itself to the recognized wants of the adolescent ; 
the new type of school can only make its influence felt 
by giving him what he recognizes as his need, rather 
than by upholding an inflexible standard and sequence 
in subject matter; in a word, the continuation school 
must come to the pupil, rather than the pupil to the con- 
tinuation school. 

We have been slower to recognize this change in 
obligation than other civilized countries, and must 
now strive to recover ground. We have been so im- 
pressed with the great boon of our free educational 
offer in elementary and secondary schools, apparently 
so much more extensive than is offered elsewhere, that 
we have stopped short. "Here is your great opportu- 
nity," we say ; " avail yourselves of it, as we offer it; if 
you cannot attend the secondary day school, because of 
economic pressure, we extend to you identical courses in 
the evening high school ; if you fail to seize upon the 
opportunity, that is your fault, not ours, and our obliga- 
tion has come to an end." 

Not so — our moral obligation extends further; our 
public evening schools, in so far as they are substan- 
tially duplications of our day schools, diluted often by 
the enfeebled activity of tired day-school teachers, have 
proved more or less failures ; we have not realized that as 
their problems are much more complex, so their oppor- 



234 THE AMERICAN SECONDARY SCHOOL 

tunities for the moral and intellectual uplift of great 
masses are unique. We have left it to private and 
semi-private enterprises, like the Y.M.C.A., to enter 
the field in which the public schools have been inade- 
quate. In an article in the Educational Review, 23, 
281-303, President Pritchett, then of the Massachusetts 
Institute of Technology, pointed out the remissness of 
our great American cities in this matter, " The signifi- 
cant feature of the contrast (between Boston and Ber- 
lin) is the fact that the one city presents a system of 
public education founded upon no effort to study the 
conditions which are to be met and to meet them, while 
in the other there is presented a plan which is at least 
consistent, which rests upon an intelligent study of the 
whole question of education of the people, and which 
aims to meet in a rational way the varying wants of all 
classes " (p. 295). 

Obviously we have but faintly grasped the signifi- 
cance of the problem, and in consequence our efforts 
at remedy have been halting. It is not likely that we 
shall ever be enabled to enforce by legislative enact- 
ment compulsory attendance in the continuation schools, 
as Germany has done it for young people to the age of 
eighteen ; we cannot penalize parents, children, and em- 
ployers who fail to comply with the law. Nor is it de- 
sirable. On the value of compulsory attendance there 
is even in Germany a difference of opinion ; Dr. Bert- 



THE CONTINUATION SCHOOL 235 

ram, the great organizer of the continuation schools of 
Berlin, says: (English Special Reports, 9, 452): "In 
cases where it is not possible to introduce the real con- 
tinuation school the obligatory continuation school must 
be accepted as a makeshift. But it is not the ideal of 
the continuation school. ... A lasting effort towards 
further development can only be secured through in- 
creasing knowledge, through a growing independent 
exertion of the will, through the oft-repeated experience 
that knowledge and the ability to use it profit a man 
inwardly and materially." 

He further intimates that the secret of their success 
must center in their obvious utility to the adolescent 
student. " Fortunately the continuation schools have 
maintained till now such flexibility that curriculum and 
standard of instruction are not determined by State 
regulation, but by the needs of the students attending 
the classes," and " Each school has a governing body, 
consisting of men of very different callings, whose spe- 
cial office it is to see that the instruction is well adapted 
to the needs of the pupils, and supported by good 
equipment." 

Our appeal must be made on other grounds, on those 
of self -advancement, self-interest ; the adolescent may 
come to realize how necessary for greater efficiency is 
an appreciation of the reasons for doing thus and not 
otherwise, of what new significance it is to his effective- 



236 THE AMERICAN SECONDARY SCHOOL 

ness as a member of the social organism to recapitulate, 
reenforce, and utilize the knowledge of the common 
school. 

The cause of the continuation school has found no 
more intelligent allies than in the employers — both in- 
dividuals and corporations; they have often proved more 
farsighted, more helpful, than the municipal authorities, 
in promoting the life interests of the young citizen. 

It is due to their intelUgent cooperation that two dis- 
tinct types of continuation schools have been initiated 
with us as in European countries, ( i ) that of the gen- 
eral continuation school which with its repetition of 
elementary school subjects combines applications of 
them to practical work, without, however, direct rela- 
tion to any particular trade (General Continuation 
Schools), and (2) that of the specialized vocational school 
adapted to the promotion of efficiency in the occupa- 
tion or trade in which the adolescent is already engaged. 

The many possibilities of these general continuation 
schools deserve special notice. Whatever his future 
calling may be, there are many general qualifications in 
which the youth should excel and for which the regular 
school affords him no help ; to compose business letters 
properly, to draw up contracts, to advertise effectively, 
to utilize drawing as a means of setting forth one's 
structural intentions (by sketch or draft), to understand 
industrial appliances and products, their relation to 



THE CONTINUATION SCHOOL 237 

crude material, to machinery, their transportation ; these 
may all be furthered by lessons on the general nature 
of business occupations and industries. It is in these 
nontechnical courses particularly that one may combat 
successfully the narrowness of specialized factory work ; 
the general intelligence and interest they arouse may 
serve more than even manual dexterity in any one 
chosen field to develop personality; the light thrown 
upon these general topics by a survey of history, ge- 
ography, and science gives to these subjects in turn a 
meaning that is usually not patent to the student in the 
elementary school. 

Incidental to instruction in both types of continuation 
schools is the further opportunity to develop the civic 
training of our young people; they all require an 
awakening to civic efficiency, whether their school life 
terminates with the elementary school, or is continued 
into the high school. And it should be understood that 
appreciation of civic obligations requires a degree of 
mental maturity which the student in the elementary 
school does not possess. The civics course of the 
elementary school has little substantial value; knowl- 
edge of civic organization, as conveyed by the textbook, 
contributes but little to an arousing of civic responsi- 
bilities. 

This phase of the continuation school has been as- 
signed great weight in the Munich Continuation System ; 



238 THE AMERICAN SECONDARY SCHOOL 

Dr. Kerschensteiner 1 insists on grouping even with 
the strictly vocational teaching a type of instruction 
in the vernacular and in history and civics which creates 
and strengthens a strong national feeling. "By giving 
one hour per week for three or four years to this in- 
struction, we manage to get most of our pupils to under- 
stand the functions of our economic, social, and political 
institutions. . . . They . . . learn the truth of the 
maxim that the meaning of life is not to rule, but to 
render service, . . . service to one's native country, ser- 
vice to truth and justice." 

It is the great privilege of the continuation schools 
that they can make their appeal on a new and most 
effective basis, that of personal advantage. The value 
of usable information, of technical efficiency, has become 
apparent to these young people ; what though no higher 
motive than self-interest prompts at first to the desire 
to know and to do ? We know that the purely utilitarian 
conception will unconsciously expand beyond its im- 
mediate narrowing outlook, that the limited initiation 
into theory which is necessary both as discipline and 
training for the realization of practical results, opens up 
new vistas to minds previously impervious to such in- 
fluences. 

* Kerschensteiner, " The Trade Continuation Schools of Munich," 
Bulletin No. 14, of National Society for the Promotion of Industrial 
Education, p. 15. 



THE CONTINUATION SCHOOL 239 

To arouse thought in the worker is the professed aim of 
the continuation school ; it will be by different methods of 
approach than the more deliberate advance of the sec- 
ondary school sanctions; in a sense, however, the con- 
tinuation school, with its specific opportunities, makes 
for a liberaHzing of the purely vocational pursuits of 
the large adolescent community. 

There is another phase of the continuation school 
that merits more attention than it has hitherto received. 
We have developed our school systems on the assump- 
tion that successful advance is based on the direct prog- 
ress from one stage to the other. The elementary pupil 
must move directly on to the secondary school ; if he 
leaves school to take up a vocation, the system of contin- 
uation school provides, or should provide, for an im- 
mediate continuance (by recapitulation or modified 
course) in some kind of mental effort. Continuity in 
intellectual effort has much in its favor ; it is therefore 
made compulsory in states like Germany, for the young 
people from fourteen to eighteen years of age. But is 
it not conceivable that an arrest in mental interest and 
capacity, a kind of intellectual torpor, may set in at a 
given stage, and that after a number of years there may 
be a reawakening, a craving for intellectual opportu- 
nity, for which no systematized provision exists in our 
educational scheme 1 Individual cases of this kind are 
familiar to all, familiar, too, the greatness of personal 



240 THE AMERICAN SECONDARY SCHOOL 

sacrifice that is made by some adults to secure belated 
educational opportunities. 

Whether with us such cases exist in sufficient num- 
bers to give rise to an appreciable educational problem, 
let the reader judge. Denmark certainly has recognized 
its existence and has met it by a very characteristic edu- 
cational advice (the Folkehojskoler, or Peasant High 
Schools). After the completion of the primary studies, 
peasant boy and girl turn to manual labor, their minds 
unable or reluctant to accept immediately further in- 
struction in the voluntary evening continuation schools. 
After a number of years spent in manual labor the 
genuine desire to acquire information reappears, and like 
a field that has been improved by lying fallow, the young 
people manifest the ability to digest and fully appropriate 
the knowledge that they desire to gain ; accustomed to 
hard physical work, their minds show unusual vigor and 
freshness. The recognition of this fact by some ideal 
Danish teachers has led to the establishment of some 
eighty adult boarding schools. A minimum of outlay is 
involved that is within the reach of all, as stipends exist for 
those who have not secured the means by their own labor. 
The young people are, during a short six months' course, 
under the influence, mental and moral, of an exceptional 
body of teachers ; their studies, besides agricultural pur- 
suits and manual training, embrace attainments in their 
vernacular, history which is of a cultural rather than 



THE CONTINUATION SCHOOL 24 1 

political kind, intended to strengthen the national feel- 
ing; some natural science, elementary mathematics, a 
modern language (Enghsh), and folk singing. 

The students return after the temporary withdrawal 
from lucrative work to their occupations with a new view 
of life ; they infuse new energy, new understanding into 
their work ; beyond the industrial betterment that these 
schools stand for and that has revolutionized the agri- 
cultural prosperity of Denmark, their influence has been 
felt in the spiritual uplift of the whole country, and their 
methods have been adopted in other Scandinavian 
centers, even in America. Similar in some respects to 
university extension courses, these courses attain their 
results without the familiar expedients of control that 
we associate with teaching courses, e.g. examinations; 
the stimulus to attainment inheres in the desire and 
ambition of the individual student^ 

The educational effort in behalf of the adult may re- 
pay the commonwealth at least as well as our current 
scheme of continuous educational advance ; modest be- 
ginnings in farmers' courses at our agricultural colleges 
point the way to further developments. 

1 J. S. Thornton, Eitglish Special Reports, I, 585-612, and vol. 17, 
pp. 105-129. Cf. Sadler, Continuation Schools in England and Elsewhere, 
Manchester, 1907 (with bibliography), pp. 483-512. 



EXCURSUS II 

The Function of the Educational Expert, with 
AN Analysis of Sadler's Reports on the Sec- 
ondary School Systems of Liverpool, Sheffield, 
Birkenhead, Newcastle, Derbyshire, Essex, 
Exeter, Hampshire. 1903-1906 

The remarkable series of reports enumerated above 
bears evidence to the awakening of intelligent public 
sentiment in England on the status and needs of second- 
ary school education. These communities appealed 
between the years 1903 and 1906 to Sir Michael Sadler, 
asking him, first, to study and criticize their existing 
provisions for secondary education, and second, to offer 
remedial suggestions for their improvement. The Re- 
ports are in a sense the fruitage of his prolonged critical 
study as Director of Special Inquiries on educational 
processes in England and its colonies, on the European 
continent, and in the United States. Starting out from 
unbiased and discerning observation of educational 
tendencies in the several countries, and of the social 
and political environments that stimulate, constrain, or 
direct their various educative agencies, ^ he formulated 

1 English Special Repoiis, I-XI. 
242 



FUNCTION OF THE EDUCATIONAL EXPERT 243 

in 1901 in the essay (English Special Reports, IX, 1-192) 
"The unrest in secondary education in Germany and 
elsewhere " in a comparative study a philosophical sum- 
mary of the present situation, pointed out essential simi- 
larity in outwardly dissimilar phenomena, and on the 
basis of inevitable changes, industrial and social, in the 
dominant intellectual nations, forecast the current of 
educational movements in each of them. 

The political changes in England that severed 
shortly afterwards Sadler's connection with the English 
Board of Education, found him prepared for the con- 
structive educational statesmanship of the following 
years, for the transference into practical suggestions 
of the accumulated thought that had been ripening 
through years of observation and analysis. He had 
emphasized the fact that the day of isolated tendencies 
in education has passed, that every nation is affected 
by movements whose origins may be traced among 
alien peoples ; that not only the shadowy past, but 
contemporaneous strivings, contribute to the history 
of all progress ; that whilst individualism has its merits, 
its defects are perilous if they prompt us to ignore 
the strivings and the conclusions of our neighbors and 
to remain obdurate in our own convictions, until the 
overwhelming evidence of wasted and misdirected effort 
compels us to remodel opinion which but for our willful 
blindness might at an earlier day have been recast. 



244 THE AMERICAN SECONDARY SCHOOL 

His contentions, at once temperate and incisive, aroused 
one municipality after the other to institute a domiciliary 
investigation of its educational facilities in the secondary 
field ; he was invited to make an exhaustive investigation 
as professional expert of its condition, and report on it. 
The resolution of Exeter (p. i) ^ is a good type of the 
procedure out of which these inquiries grew. 

If readiness to know our shortcomings, to accept gra- 
ciously a truthful exposure of our conditions, to submit to 
an unsparing professional estimate of our necessities, to 
publish these criticisms, whether appreciative or admoni- 
tory, for our own benefit and that of our fellows, be the nec- 
essary forerunner of reforms, then these communities have 
by their actions set a notable example of loyalty to the 
higher interests of their commonwealths. Valuable are 
these reports, but greater still and particularly instructive 
to us Americans is the communal spirit that has called 
them into being ; the publication of each report, 
authorized and paid for by the municipal councils, is a 
warrant of the civic responsiveness that is beyond petty 

1 " That in order to insure a complete system of education in the 
City of Exeter, it is desirable that a return should now be obtained of 
all those institutions and schools, whether public or private, which are 
giving Secondary Education, and that an expert opinion should be 
obtained as to the best manner of coordinating and developing the 
work of both Primary and Secondary schools, so as to avoid waste of 
effort, money, etc., and of supplying such further educational facilities 
as the City may be considered to require." 



FUNCTION OF THE EDUCATIONAL EXPERT 245 

conceit, beyond so-called local pride, that is intent on 
learning the truth, however painful, that is submissive 
to the crucial analysis of the trained observer, and is 
convinced that in great educational problems the vagaries 
of the well-intentioned amateur must make way for the 
balanced judgment of the expert ; if the amateurish 
spirit still holds in England, those who have authorized 
these investigations cannot be charged with it. 

It is of unusual significance, furthermore, that in each 
municipality (or county) all educational enterprises, 
public and private, have voluntarily cooperated to make 
the inquiry a complete one ; they have submitted their 
institutions as to organization, financial basis, and actual 
performance to the probe of the investigator. Does 
this not point to an honesty of endeavor, a conviction of 
reasonable effort, even within limited and inadequate con- 
ditions, that promises well for the regenerative process ? 
We may, of course, say that self-interest dictated this 
frank acceptance of criticism, for England has been 
rudely awakened to a realization of its educational short- 
comings ; yet we cannot but admire the manly response 
which does not try to befog, to belie itself. And how 
commendable, how soundly conservative, is the method 
pursued ! When the great gap in the educational system 
is realized, these communities do not clamor tumultuously 
for change that may mean discomfiture ; they invite a 
searching inquiry from one who never overthrows what 



246 THE AMERICAN SECONDARY SCHOOL 

is worth preserving, but who centers attention upon the 
mode of evolving the new ideals, through existing oppor- 
tunities, if possible, through the creation of new institu- 
tions, if the demands of progress can be met in no other 
way. To an American student of educational problems 
this attitude of the commonwealth and of the teaching 
community is so striking that it cannot be overempha- 
sized. 

That the influence of these reports does not termi- 
nate with the investigation proper and the dissemination 
of the results through publication may be taken for 
granted. A commonwealth that has applied for reme- 
dies has practically indicated its willingness to utilize 
them ; municipalities cannot, however, in a day, and by 
decree, bring into realization changes of a far-reaching 
nature. Reforms work most effectively when they are 
deliberately initiated ; we shall witness the effect of these 
reports in the internal reorganization of the English 
secondary schools that is now under way. 

There was realized by the communities that invited 
Sadler's aid, a principle, previously referred to. Clear- 
ness of vision on the part of the investigator is con- 
ditioned upon his disinterestedness, upon his remote- 
ness from merely local issues; the critic, the expert, 
must stand outside of the seething conditions that con- 
trol local preferences and prejudices. No one in an edu- 
cational system can be as dispassionate a judge as the 



FUNCTION OF THE EDUCATIONAL EXPERT 247 

one who stands outside and above the individual system, 
who surveys from the tableland of a wide generalization 
the needs and the advantages of an individual community. 
Superficially there are certain discrepancies between 
the several reports in the order of presentation of facts, 
these are, however, questions of literary arrangement 
rather than indications of a varying sequence in procedure. 
In a few instances the reports (Derbyshire p. 11) for- 
mulate at once the general recommendations, and give 
the detailed study of existing conditions of which they 
are the product, later on ; in the majority of cases this 
constructive part is presented at the close of the report 
as the final outcome. The order of inquiry, we may be 
sure, has been the same in each case ; (i) a dispassionate 
investigation of all the educational institutions in each 
community, of their effectiveness, their equipment in 
teachers and material, their relation to each other, discloses 
the facilities available. It is followed (2) by a study of the 
needs of the community, of the relation that the second- 
ary school system should bear to its environment, to the 
social and industrial fabric of the city or county, — an 
inquiry this in educational philosophy in which the deduc- 
tions from an extensive and varied observational experi- 
ence guide and warn ; and finally,(3)a series of practical 
suggestions in which the theoretical requirements are 
reconciled to the financial exigencies and capacities of 
the community. 



248 THE AMERICAN SECONDARY SCHOOL 

Attention should be called to the fact that the whole- 
some conservatism of Sadler manifests itself nowhere 
more conspicuously than in his mastery of the economic 
features of the situation ; theoretical reforms are likely 
to prove barren suggestions, if they disregard the 
financial limitations of a community. Changes in 
schools and school systems always mean additional out- 
lay, but they must not be prohibitive, and their advocate 
must be able to present convincing evidence of their 
ultimate economy. The lucidity of Sadler's budgets 
appeals strongly to the lay mind. The diverse quali- 
fications that must be united in the one expert are 
obvious from this brief analysis; calm and temperate 
critical observation, equally removed from indulgent ac- 
ceptance of weak effort and from unsympathetic fault- 
finding, but unshrinking in the utterance of truth ; a 
clear and definite attitude with respect to the aim at 
issue and the means of compassing it, such attitude the 
combined outcome of thought and wide experience; 
and finally, with a strenuous advocacy of necessary 
reforms, an appreciation of material limitations. 

Of the three phases of inquiry the first and third 
naturally show the more individual traits, as community 
after community is examined ; the second as the philo- 
sophic conviction of the investigator will have a certain 
homogeneousness in the enunciation of principles ; but 
it is characteristic of these reports that though destined 



FUNCTION OF THE EDUCATIONAL EXPERT 249 

to interpret local problems, there are interwoven into 
all parts of their arguments, views of the broadest edu- 
cational insight, suggesting application to general issues, 
to which even we Americans are not strangers. 

The student of these reports would be guilty of a fatal 
error if he turned too hastily to the constructive part of 
the scheme in the Suggestions and Recommendations for 
Improvement ; the genius of the author, his educational 
creed, is quite as manifest in the chapters that contain 
a survey of existing institutions, and in those that deal 
with the causes of weakness that his probe has reached. 
There is something inspiring in the manner in which 
well-bred courtesy duly recognizes meritorious effort, 
but never hesitates to point with relentless logic to the 
needed improvement. 

Thus, in the summary of the Liverpool Report p. iii, 
he says : " Struck by the fruitful variety of Liverpool's 
traditions, and by the self-sacrificing generosity of . . . 
individual workers, I cannot disguise from the committee 
the grave concern with which, at the close of my inquiry, 
I regard the present state of much of the secondary edu- 
cation of Liverpool. Its defects are very serious. They 
seem to me to threaten some of the vital interests of the 
city. They allow a large part of its intellectual resources 
to run to waste. They impair the efficiency of every other 
part of the educational organization ; " and again, p. 36, 
" Secondary education has been its Cinderella, left 



250 THE AMERICAN SECONDARY SCHOOL 

too long in comparative neglect." Sheffield p. 18, " While 
some of the educational institutions of Sheffield are on 
a high plane of efficiency . . . secondary education for 
boys is the weak place in the educational arrangements 
of Sheffield ; " " the various types of curricula are often 
blended or combined ; but efficiency in school work 
flourishes when the intellectual aims are clear " (p. 9). 
In Newcastle, with all the native excellence of the 
material on which the schools have to work, and the 
abundant individuality of effort, he notes a lack of link- 
age, a half contempt for all but the so-called practical 
and profitable subjects ; demonstrating by diagrams the 
irregularity of school life during the normal period of 
secondary education, he says, " These diagrams, showing 
in how many cases the secondary school life of the pupil 
begins too late and ends too soon, reveal a grave flaw in 
the intellectual efficiency of secondary education in New- 
castle" (p. 10). 

As to individual schools, we come upon statements 
like this one (Derbyshire, p. 46) referring to a coeduca- 
tional secondary school at Bakewell in Derbyshire: "A 
strong staff of teachers, admirably equipped for their 
work, is needed at Bakewell far more than great ex- 
penditure upon brick and mortar." 

A more striking example of Mr. Sadler's admirable 
method is furnished in his Exeter Report p. 19 ff.; 
speaking of the Episcopal Middle School for Girls, he 



FUNCTION OF THE EDUCATIONAL EXPERT 25 1 

points out the inadequacy in classrooms, its evil effect 
upon the teaching, the lack of funds which hinders educa- 
tional success ; it impairs the efficient staffing of the 
school with properly qualified teachers and substi- 
tutes that inbreeding process, — the introduction of its 
own graduates, — of whose serious consequence more 
than one American city could tell a tale. Giving credit 
where it properly belongs, to the head mistress who is 
working in the teeth of great difficulties, he passes upon 
the merits and demerits of the instruction in various 
subjects: "the French teaching needs to be organized 
on a plan that will have regard both to the capabilities 
of the staff and the needs of the children," p. 24, and 
without obscuring various shortcomings, there is a voice 
of encouragement in his final statement, p. 25, " Heavily 
handicapped as the school is by want of funds, its pos- 
sibilities cannot be judged by its actual achievements." 

Again and again throughout these reports there are 
enunciated general educational propositions that are in 
effect the utterances of educational truths ; pieced 
together they might be labeled his educational creed ; 
with a recognition of the characteristic merits of the 
English system, with a patriot's belief in the desirability 
of their retention, he aspires to incorporate or adapt into 
the system the best results of foreign experiences. The 
freedom from a narrow insularity inspires confidence in 
the value of his educational judgments. 



252 THE AMERICAN SECONDARY SCHOOL 

The range of his observations, indicated in the ac- 
companying summary, may serve to direct American 
teachers to a detailed study of this great storehouse of 
observations and suggestions. 

On the TRANSITION from the elementary to the second- 
ary school, Sheffield p. 26, " Some of the most skillful 
teaching in the school should be focused at the point 
at which the scholars would enter from the public ele- 
mentary schools." Liverpool p. 18, " It is essential that 
the courses of study should be so arranged as to facili- 
tate the admission of boys from the public elementary 
schools at twelve years of age. This can be effected by 
a better correlation of the subjects taught in the elemen- 
tary and secondary schools." 

Expert investigation. Liverpool p. I. " It has been 
my duty to think of the educational system as a whole 
instead of concentrating attention upon one department 
of it to the exclusion of the rest ; to examine the links 
which connect its various parts ; to consider the kind of 
service which, if adequately maintained, each group of 
schools may fairly be expected to render to the civic life 
and to the commercial interests of the city ; and to 
measure the efficiency of the educational equipment of 
Liverpool, more particularly as regards its secondary 
education with that of some other great commercial 
cities in other lands." ^ 

I Cf. Exeter pp. 35, 41, 63, 66. 



FUNCTION OF THE EDUCATIONAL EXPERT 253 

Sheffield p. 43, " The City Education Committee should 
encourage conferences among the teachers engaged in 
different types of schools in the city with a view to the 
strengthening of educational unity among various insti- 
tutions, to the diffusion of knowledge of new educational 
methods, and to the adjustment of the curricula of differ- 
ent schools in such a way as to remove any unnecessary 
obstacles to the passage of children from one grade of 
education to another." 

To the value of inspection, its aim, method, its con- 
tinuity and its range, frequent references occur, e.g. 
Birkenhead p. 51. " Inspection by competent and inde- 
pendent authorities is now admitted to be the only satis- 
factory method of finding out whether a school is efficient 
or not. Inspection is costly." He suggests, therefore, 
that the Education Committee of the city undertake to 
arrange for the inspection of both public and private 
schools. With frequent inspection of the curriculum, 
part by part, " there would be much more opportunity 
for discussion between teachers and inspectors, and 
the suggestions which might be made for improve- 
ment would stand a better chance of being put into 
practice." 

Sheffield p. 42, " I think that all private schools should 
be invited to place themselves under annual inspection 
and examination so that their intellectual efficiency may 
be guaranteed; I found that all the private school 



254 THE AMERICAN SECONDARY SCHOOL 

masters and mistresses whom I saw would be prepared 
for such inspection." 

" Success in passing a few pupils through external 
examinations should not be regarded as in itself a suffi- 
cient test of the educational efficiency of the whole work 
of a school." See Essex pp. 30, 39; Exeter p. 56; 
Liverpool p. 26 ; Derbyshire p. 134. 

That external examinations, if frequent, are a source 
of weakness, is emphasized, Birkenhead p. 40. Under 
such examinations " the real problem, namely, the intel- 
lectual need of the individual child, is often overlooked." 
" Examinations might be made good servants, but when 
the teacher's energies are absorbed in preparing for 
them, when little time is left for the questions of what 
course of study and what methods of teaching will have 
the best influence in the long run upon the pupils' in- 
tellectual interest and powers, then the examinations 
have become bad masters." Liverpool p. 71. 

Education, Sheffield p. 13, "Education is something 
far deeper and more searching than mere book learn- 
ing. It is a discipline of body, of mind, and of heart. 
Whatever agencies are at work in refining and purify- 
ing the life and the tastes of the people, as well as in 
strengthening its intellectual power, are justly regarded 
as part of the system of education." Cf. Sheffield p. 3 ; 
Birkenhead p. 35; Liverpool pp. 62 ff., and 73. 

On the vagueness in the use of the term " Secondary 



FUNCTION or THE EDUCATIONAL EXPERT 255 

Education," cf. Essex pp. 14, 16, 30; Derbyshire pp. 
6, 8; Liverpool pp. 4, 36, 21, 22. "We can combine, 
if we so will, variety of individual effort with the helpful 
support of public subsidy, and the watchful superintend- 
ence of expert care. We can unite that vigor of per- 
sonal initiative which has been the glory and the strength 
of certain sides of our national life with the power 
of the State, with the resources of the community, and 
with the steady pursuit of a well considered national 
plan of educational improvement." Birkenhead p. 22. 

References to the aims of secondary education 
are to be found in Essex pp. 24, 32, 33. "To hold 
the balance true between the two extremes in secondary 
education — between the extreme development and the 
undue neglect of intellectual interests — is the great 
task now before the administrators of English schools." 
Cf. Sheffield, p. 9 ; Birkenhead pp. 46, 49 ; Derbyshire 
p. 99. 

Essex p. 5, " It would be injurious to the collective 
interest to allow unfettered individualism to destroy 
our chances of national organization." Liverpool p. 
12, " It would be a real misfortune for a commercial 
city to make commercial knowledge the dominant aim 
of its secondary education. The more likely that a 
boy's future life work is to absorb him in questions 
which necessarily have some sordid sides, the more 
need is there to insist that throughout his education 



256 THE AMERICAN SECONDARY SCHOOL 

there shall be a strong vein of idealism which shall 
keep his aims fresh and high throughout his after life. 
In no direction is it more necessary than in the direc- 
tion of a commercial community to give large place 
to the vivid and real teaching of the humanities. Pre- 
mature preparation for private schooling would be 
deadly to the best interests of Liverpool and also 
certain to defeat its own object. The best education 
is slow, it needs time for its work, it cannot be hurried." 
Cf. also Liverpool pp. 8, 11, 13, 15, 17, 36. 

Striking diagrams of the length of school life, 
and the relation of various parts of the school system, 
including even private schools, are presented and dis- 
cussed in Essex pp. 13, 29, Appendix B; Newcastle 
PP- 8, 9, 39; Birkenhead pp. 89 ff; Derbyshire pp. 
10, 16; Liverpool p. 74. 

Various questions of educational policy, together 
with educational opportunities, in which the value of 
an educational director is included, are touched upon 
in Essex pp. 2, 3, 7, 72-74; Birkenhead pp. 41, 42, 
46, 102; Newcastle pp. 58, 64; Sheffield pp. 4, 43, 45; 
Derbyshire pp. 98-100; 133-136. A full discussion 
from the economic point of view of a district in Der- 
byshire is exceedingly suggestive ; the social and eco- 
nomic structure of the district as an example of 
collectivist democracy is treated at some length ; its 
cooperative store, its musical societies, its free church 



FUNCTION OF THE EDUCATIONAL EXPERT 257 

organizations, the demand for the lace trade " that calls 
for the exercise of artistic taste and a quick sense of 
color and form. This condition as a psychological back- 
ground to the economic prosperity of the district, should 
be kept steadily in mind in the educational plans framed 
for the community." A recognition of the special needs 
of the district, which, however, does not ignore the other 
needs of the region, underlies the suggested modification 
of the school system. 

Similar to this picture of special conditions is the 
treatment of the economic conditions of Essex (Essex 
p. 3) ; cf. Sheffield p. 33 ; Newcastle p. 3 (with special 
insistence on the need of an industrial museum, New- 
castle p. 65); Derbyshire pp. 9, 11, 25 ; Liverpool p. 14. 

A noteworthy adaptation of a curriculum to what Sad- 
ler considers the special needs of a community like Liv- 
erpool, namely, emphasis upon the humanities and the 
study of the mother tongue, is given in his recommenda- 
tions, Liverpool pp. 135, 141 ; cf. also Newcastle pp. 4, 
37; Sheffield p. 21; Exeter p. 37; Birkenhead p. 23, 
which emphasizes the fact that undue specialization in 
the direction of natural science is unfavorable to the 
general culture of the mental powers, allowing too little 
time for Enghsh subjects and other linguistic training. 
Apparently suitable to some types of mind, " it was apt 
in most cases to stunt the powers of expression and 
those studies which as a rule prove most efficacious in 



258 THE AMERICAN SECONDARY SCHOOL 

developing wide interests and in stimulating and refining 
the imagination, were thrust into a corner." 

That QUALITY OF INSTRUCTION rather than quantity 
should be emphasized, the Liverpool Report pp. 133, 134, 
develops. Good, efficient teachers, good equipment, a 
general strengthening of the teaching staff, is argued for 
at length, Liverpool pp. 137-140. "The real efficiency 
and influence of a school depend upon the talent, the 
energy, the experienced skill and the talent of its 
teachers, and therefore no part of the expenditure is 
more remunerative than that devoted to the maintenance 
of a very highly qualified set of masters." 

Birkenhead p. 47, " It is quality not quantity that tells 
in the long run. A prudent course is to have a few 
thoroughly good secondary schools, not a great many 
indifferent ones, but a really efficient secondary school 
is a costly thing to maintain;" cf. Birkenhead p. 38. 
" One teacher might take the English and French, being 
regularly sent abroad once a year to a holiday course, 
or for private residence iii a French family " (Derby- 
shire p. 43). 

Against the expediency of the inbreeding of teachers 
Sadler protests in Liverpool p. 96. "Teachers, even 
more than other people, need the broadening influence 
of a wide experience. They learn much from getting 
outside their own local associations, and from meeting 
others whose lives have had a background different 



FUNCTION OF THE EDUCATIONAL EXPERT 259 

from their own. The interchange of ideas and expe- 
riences make for width of view and for greater fresh- 
ness of thought" 

The point of view of economy, of avoidance of un- 
necessary expenditure, is prominent in these reports. 
Sheffield p. 7 ; Birkenhead p. 8 : " To devise a plan 
which would meet the pressing needs of all sections 
of the community with the utmost economy consistent 
with real educational efficiency." 

" Gradual changes, cautious experiments because of 
the changes that are taking place in the spirit and aims 
of secondary education," are frequently emphasized ; cf. 
Derbyshire p. 23. Educational methods and traditions 
have always to adjust themselves to those profound 
changes in character and ideas which come about through 
great extensions of human knowledge. " Much that 
was formerly taken for granted in educational procedure 
is now being subjected to distinct criticism. We may 
feel that many of the modern educational movements 
have set in a dangerous direction. We may suspect 
that in course of time much that at present looks at- 
tractive and liberating will be followed by disillusion- 
ment and reaction, but we are bound to act . . . etc." 

" At present we are compelled to retain every educa- 
tional instrument of tested value." " The more prudent 
course will be to concentrate effort on getting a suffi- 
cient number of secondary schools into a high state of 



26o THE AMERICAN SECONDARY SCHOOL 

efficiency and encouraging their teachers to make vari- 
ous experiments in curricula and in method of teach- 
ing." 

Of certain vital features in secondary education 
courses Sadler speaks in Sheffield p. 8. " That those 
destined to receive a secondary education be transferred 
not later than at the age of twelve to the secondary 
school, that there should be three main types of secondary 
school, each with its variant for boys or girls respectively, 
first, that in which mathematics and physical science pre- 
dominate ; second, that in which (with due provision for 
mathematical teaching) the linguistic discipline predomi- 
nates, living languages being taken as the chief vehicles 
of instruction ; and third, the type in which Latin and 
Greek are dominant, with some regard to one modern 
foreign language as well as to mathematics." To a 
blending of these various types he objects. " Effi- 
ciency in school work flourishes when the intellectual 
aims are clear." Sheffield p. 9. 

In Sheffield pp. 31 and 32, and in many other reports, 
he emphasizes strongly the need "of sustaining and 
developing as far as time allows the pupils' interest in 
history and good literature." 

An interesting contribution to the value or absence 
of value of certain subjects that find frequent advocacy 
among our secondary school teachers is a reference, 
Birkenhead p. 67, to what he calls " a devotion to short- 



FUNCTION OF THE EDUCATIONAL EXPERT 261 

hand'a.TxA bookkeeping, which almost amounts to a mania." 
The educative value of such subjects as business rou- 
tine or commercial correspondence is small. " Commer- 
cial instruction, to be of any worth, must be recognized 
for what it is, a branch of technical education which 
should come after a reasonable standard of general edu- 
cation has been attained. At present we are making it 
a cheap substitute for a course of general instruction." 

Against a course narrowly utilitarian, or one that 
is a mere torso of a curriculum, Sadler frequently pro- 
tests.^ " The virtue of secondary instruction lies in 
large measure in its duration, in its slow influence upon 
the intellect. The best teachers need the help of time 
if they wish to act upon intellectual habit, and to ac- 
complish the education of the mind which is truly 
the essential aim of secondary education." Birkenhead 
p. 49. 

Again and again he emphasizes that teachers must 
receive such remuneration that they can without 
anxiety devote themselves to the work before them. 
Birkenhead p. 23 : " The scale of annual grants still falls 
far short of what the state might fairly be expected to 
contribute in aid of so costly and naturally indispensable 
a thing as an efficient secondary education." ^ Cf . Derby- 
shire pp. 42, 43, 61, 65 ; Essex pp. 8, 42, 90, and partic- 
ularly Liverpool pp. 137 £f. Besides the normal scheme 

1 Newcastle p. 35, Exeter pp. 39-41. 2 Sheffield p. 28. 



262 THE AMERICAN SECONDARY SCHOOL 

of advancing salaries, Sadler advocates as applicable to 
cases of special excellence and ability the adoption of a 
higher scale of salary on the headmaster's recommenda- 
tion " when it was thought expedient to secure or to 
retain the services of a teacher with specially high quali- 
fications for the work of the school." Liverpool p. 138. 
Again, " it is through the experience of its older teachers 
that a good school derives many of the elements which 
are of special value in forming an inspiring tradition of 
intellectual thoroughness and of devotion to duty. And 
how can we reasonably expect to succeed in maintaining 
a high standard of intellectual preparation and of profes- 
sional training for the calling of a teacher in a secondary 
school if we allow the economic prospects of the profes- 
sion to remain in a state which gives to those who think 
of devoting themselves to its duties no prospect of a 
fair return in middle life for the cost and labor of ade- 
quately preparing themselves for their difficult work.^ 
No one would wish, even if such a course were possible, 
to see our secondary schools staffed by young teachers 
only. Such a state of things would gravely injure the 
intellectual standards of the schools, and rob them of 
the wisdom of mature experience." Liverpool p. 152. 

On the PRINCIPLES that are to prevail in different 
courses, the reports furnish many an interesting com- 
ment; thus, Sheffield p. 8 : " No one boy can attempt to do 
everything ; smattering is mischievous ; better do a few 



FUNCTION OF THE EDUCATIONAL EXPERT 263 

things well than much badly, and the aptitudes of dif- 
ferent children differ as greatly as do the practical needs 
of different occupations." With a number of the most 
progressive continental educators, he favors the post- 
ponement of Latin until pupils are twelve years of age 
(Liverpool p. 185), and urges that French undertaken 
intensively shall precede Latin. Liverpool p. 135 : "In 
order that the boys may get a feeling of power in their 
use of it (French), it should be taught according to the 
best modern methods, and with due regard both to skill 
in speaking and reading it, and to grammatical accuracy 
in composition." A special memorandum by Mr. 
Cloudesley Brereton, forming Appendix I of the Liver- 
pool Report, discusses in detail suggested methods in the 
teaching of modern languages. This paper is worthy 
of the closest study. Cf . also Newcastle p. 36, Exeter 
pp. 13, 14, 46, 47. 

We encounter a frank criticism of demerits in the 
various schools in Derbyshire p. 82, where there are 
pointed out as objections the late age at which pupils 
enter the secondary school, the lack of a good reference 
library, and the absence of connection between the sec- 
ondary and elementary schools. Cf. Derbyshire' p. 91 : 
" It would be inexpedient to place here (mentioning a 
certain small town) a secondary school of the classical 
type. The pupils needing this kind of education can get 
it without serious difficulty in neighboring towns. If such 



264 THE AMERICAN SECONDARY SCHOOL 

a school were established and made thoroughly efficient, 
much of its work would be unsuitable to the real needs of 
the bulk of the inhabitants. If, on the other hand, it were 
left inadequately staffed and intellectually inefficient, it 
would be no good to anybody." Cf. Liverpool pp. 133, 
146, 148, 149, 152; Newcastle p. 59; Essex p. 31; 
Sheffield p. 20 : " It is no kindness to a child to push 
him up educationally into a false position. We need 
in England to neglect neither the average pupil nor the 
gifted one." Cf. also Newcastle p. 10. 

To the ACADEMIC QUALIFICATIONS of the teacher and 
his training, Sadler, who has been a close observer of 
German and French methods, reverts frequently. Thus, 
Essex p. 81 : "It is much to be desired that a larger 
proportion even of those intending to teach in the ele- 
mentary schools of the county shall have the advantage 
of a college training." He quotes with approval, Birk- 
enhead p. 57, "A good system of school organization 
will do something, the introduction of rational methods 
and textbooks will do more. But we need look for no 
permanent improvement in our schools until they are 
filled by a new race of teachers, better paid, better 
trained for their work, and above all, more highly 
educated." 

It is interesting to note his objections to the nar- 
rowly TRAINED SPECIALIST. Speaking of the teacher 
in applied mathematics and science, he says, Sheffield 



FUNCTION OF THE EDUCATIONAL EXPERT 265 

p, 21, "Applied science is exerting an ever growing 
influence on social problems and on the intellectual 
movements of our times. It affects the moral and 
human side of things as well as their material and 
mechanical side. It is expedient, therefore, that our 
trained technologist should have made some acquaint- 
ance with those questions of human history and develop- 
ment which are treated in the philosophical, the historical, 
the literary and the economic courses at a university. 
A divorce between technology and culture would be 
sterilizing to both sides." 

This reference to technological education is one of 
a series of topics frequently treated. How to strengthen 
technical education is discussed, Essex pp. 75-78, Der- 
byshire p. 154: " Experience has shown that a liberal 
secondary education is the only sound basis upon which 
a system of higher technical education can rest. The 
experience of Germany is conclusive on this point." 
To us Americans the discussion of the attitude of pro- 
gressive employers toward a problem of technical educa- 
tion is supremely valuable. Sheffield pp. 15-17 pre- 
sents a plan very similar to that in operation in the en- 
gineering department of the University of Cincinnati. 
Cf. Birkenhead pp. 74-78, " Profitable specialization is 
impossible save for a mind founded upon a basis of 
general education," Irregular attendance and lack of 
logical connection in the evening classes is criticized. 



266 THE AMERICAN SECONDARY SCHOOL 

Birkenhead pp. 65, 79 ; Essex p. 3. A general criti- 
cism of the evening school system is afforded, Liver- 
pool pp. 125-130. Comparing with the vigorous 
peoples' high schools and their influence on the 
national life of Denmark, and the continuation schools 
of Germany, Sadler, Liverpool p. 130 says, "A self- 
governing nation needs good evening schools because 
they provide what is really a form of secondary edu- 
cation for the masses of the people." And he adds, 
p. 132, "Compulsory attendance at evening classes in 
suitable subjects on two nights a week during the winter 
months in each of the two years immediately following 
the day school course, seems to me an expedient and 
necessary development of our educational system. 
Nothing short of state action can secure the adjustment 
of hours of employment to the needs of those who ought 
to be attending continuation classes. . . . And after 
some temporary inconvenience and much indignant 
opposition, the new order of things would, I am per- 
suaded, approve itself to the judgment of the nation at 
large." In connection with the general subject of the 
continuation schools, and the features that in them make 
for efficiency, cf. Birkenhead pp. 68-78. 

The problem of providing for the pupils who cannot 
profit by a complete secondary course, engages Mr. 
Sadler's attention in every one of the reports. He intro- 
duces as a new and intermediate type of school the 



FUNCTION OF THE EDUCATIONAL EXPERT 267 

HIGHER ELEMENTARY SCHOOL, references to which in its 
various types occur in Birkenhead pp. 41-45 and 89; 
Derbyshire pp. 12, 13, 92, 116-120, 156-174; New- 
castle pp. 35-40, and elsewhere. The detailed elabora- 
tion of curricula for this type of school appears in 
Derbyshire pp. 42-66 ; and the special needs accord- 
ing to locality and character of the population are made 
prominent. Derbyshire pp. 173-174; Newcastle pp. 
35, 36; Birkenhead pp. 43-45- 

It is impossible to exhaust in this rapid survey the 
educational significance of these reports. If the char- 
acter of the topics selected invites to a detailed study of 
a number of the reports, the excursus has served its 
purpose. 



APPENDIX 

OUTLINES FOR THE TEACHING OF CER- 
TAIN SUBJECT GROUPS IN THE SEC- 
ONDARY SCHOOL COURSE 

I. ENGLISH 

A. History of the Teaching of English in Secondary 
Schools before and after 1876. 

The necessity for the teaching of English ; influence of changed 
conditions in population : why the school finds here one of its most 
serious duties. 

English as the unifying subject of the high school course. 

Influence of this theory on the general construction of school 
programs. 

Comparative allotment of time to the subject. 

English in preparatory schools, academies, and high schools ; 
demands of the colleges ; character of the work they suggest. 

Recognition of the present necessity ; the present state of knowl- 
edge with respect to English. 

References : ' 

Carpenter, Baker, and Scott, The Teaching of English, pp. 37-51 ; 

also 186. 
Chubb, Percival, The Teaching of English. 
Colby, J- R-, Literature and Life in School. 
Neilson, Wm., What May Colleges Expect f School Review, 

Feb., 1908 ; see also School Review, Dec, 1908, 646 if. 
Alton, Geo. B., The Purpose of English in the High School, 

School Review, 1897, pp. 148-170. 

269 



270 APPENDIX 

B. Theory of the Teaching of the Mother Tongue in 
England, Germany, and France. 

Moral importance assigned to the subject in Germany and 
France. 

The study of the mother tongue considered as an organic unit ; 
its component parts definitely organized — its place as the central 
subject in all secondary courses — value of this policy. 

Special features of teaching the mother tongue in France. 

Definiteness of organization of work in the vernacular in Ger- 
man and French schools ; unity of purpose, how effected. A study 
of various textbooks, how they are graduated. Governmental su- 
pervision of manuals and courses of instruction ; aims as to enun- 
ciation, oral and written speech, style, acquaintance with literary 
masterpieces. 

Training of teachers, preparation and criticism of textbooks and 
texts. 

References : 

Carpenter, Baker, and Scott, pp. 26-36 ; 52-66. 

Dale, F. H., English Special Reports on Educational Subjects, I, 

533-576. 
Russell, James E., Gertnan Higher Schools, chap. 12. 
Hartog, P. J., Teaching the Mother Tongue in France, Educational 

Review, April, 1908, pp. 331-351- 
Revised Curricula, etc., for High Schools in Prussia, abstract 
'*''' from Ordinances of Prussian Ministry of Education in 1901 ; 

compare for study of mother tongue vol. 9 of English Special 

Reports, p. 194, with statements in vol. 3 of same reports, pp. 

268-271, and p. 316. 
Chesterton, The Defendant, pp. 1 24-131, On Neglect of Study of 

English in England. 
Voss (Norwegian), Die padagogische Vorbildung zum hoheren 

Lehramt in Preussen, p. 55 on instruction in the mother 

tongue. 
Lehmann, Rud., Der Deutsche Unterricht (2d edition), 1897, 

pp. 438-453- 



APPENDIX 271 

Smith, Jessie F., English in Secondary Schools of England, etc., 
Educational Review, Oct., 1910, 266. 



C. Relation of English Work in the Elementary School 

TO THAT OF THE HiGH SCHOOL. 

Possibilities and limitations in elementary school ; capacities of 
teachers ; material available ; method employed, aim. 

Difficulties of the task ; paraphrasing and its dangers. 

The reading-series in elementary and secondary courses ; its 
history ; criticism ; its present unpopularity ; the substitute offered. 

The ideal of a reading series ; kind of materials to be selected. 

The disciplinary feature ; development of vocabulary, of thought 
experiences. 

Ballad poetry. 

Model lessons for elementary teachers. 

Danger of over-interpretation and of illegitimate correlation. 

Factors of good elementary work. 

Character of grammar work in elementary school. 

References : 

Reeder, R. R., The Historical Development of School Readers 
and Method in Teaching Reading., Columbia Univ. Press, 
1900. 

Ballad poetry: Atlantic Educational Journal, Dec, 1908, pp. 
i6ir. 

MacClintock, P. L., Literature in the Elementary School (Univ. 
of Chicago Press, 1908). 

Wolfe, L. E., Reading in the Elementary Schools, Educational 
Review, Oct., 1908, pp. 262-272. 

Haliburton and Smith, Poetry in the Grades, Riverside Educa- 
tional monographs. 

School (London), Sept., 1907, pp. 70 ff. on selection of books for 
children in Germany ; aims and method pursued. 

O'Shea, Linguistic Development, chap. X. 

Hinsdale, B. A., Teaching the Language Arts, chaps. 8-19. 



272 APPENDIX 

D. Knowledge and Appreciation the Keynote of High 
School Work. 

How to strip it of the character of a task. 

What features are subsidiary to central objects ? 

Unity of the work develops power of reproduction. 

Influence on character. 

Relations of composition, rhetoric, and literature. 

Consonance in method of advance. 

With what literary productions shall the school make the pupil 
acquainted, in what order, and how ? 

Development of a rational four-year course. 

Mechanical methods of distribution of reading matter. 

Principles to be observed ; the concentric idea. 

Reading for enjoyment and for study. 

Necessity of combating slovenly enunciation and expression ; 
elocution. 

First year's work of supreme importance ; why ? 

The short story — its character — various types. 

Various purposes in study of selections. 

The annotated textbook. 

What is appreciation ? Appreciation versus criticism. 

Attitude of teacher toward critical estimate ; wise and unwise 
stimulation ; the historical method. 

Varieties of literary expression. 

Scope of work, guiding hand of teacher, nature of his own attain- 
ments and interest ; width of collateral information. 

Special interests of teacher prevent monotony. 

References : 

Ashmun, Prose Literature for Secondary Schools, Houghton, 

Mifflin Co., 1910. 
Brown, G. P., On the Teaching of English in the High School, in 
Fifth Yearbook National Society for Scientific Study of 
Education, pp. 44-60. 



APPENDIX 273 

Coblentz, H. C, School Review, April, 1909, p. 283. 

Lambert, L., The Study of English, in Education, Feb., 1909, pp. 

351-359- 
Report of Conference Committee on High School English, School 

Review, Feb., 1909, pp. 85-88. 
On Treatment of Poetry, Monatschrift fur hbhere Schulen, III, 

Oct., 1904, pp. 481-486. 
Ellis, Havelock, On Learning to Write, Atlantic Monthly, Nov., 

1908, pp. 626-632. 
Erskine, English in the High School, Educational Review, Nov., 

1910. 
Chubb, P., Menace of Pedantry, School Review, Jan., 191 2, 

pp. 34 ff. 
The Temporary Decay of the Short Story, in Fortnightly Review, 

Oct., 1908, pp. 631-642. 
Canby, Henry, The Short Story (Yale Studies in English), Holt 

and Co. 
Albright, E. M., The Short Story (The Macmillan Company). 
Criticism on Albright, School Review, Jan., 1908, pp. 61 fF. 
Matthews, Brander, Philosophy of the Short Story (Longmans). 
Lipsky, Rhythms of Prose Style (Archives of Psychology, 

Columbia Univ.). 
Fitch, J. G., Lectures on Teaching, pp. 275-278. 
Faunce, Wm. G., The Humanizing of Study, School Review, 

Oct., 1908, pp. 489 ff. 
Mahy, ^Esthetic Appreciation, School Review, XV, pp. 731 fF. 

E. Balance between Poetry and Prose; how to Treat 
Poetry in the Classroom. 

Experience of foreign schools. 
Balance between everyday and literary language. 
Position of English teacher among his colleagues. 
Influence of entrance requirements and entrance examinations, 
and accrediting system ; how to meet this influence. 
Changes in requirements — present tendencies. 
History of entrance requirements. 
Harvard entrance requirements in English. 



274 APPENDIX 

References : 

H. Paul, The Teaching of Lyric Poetry^ Bulletin of Illinois 

Association Teachers of English, IV, Nos. 2 and 3. 
Buehler, Training of the Imagination in the Study of Literature, 

School Review, Dec, 1898. 
Report of English Conference (sub-committee) in Report of 

Committee of Ten, pp. 86-96 (U.S. Bureau of Education, 

publication No. 205). 
Report of National Educational Association of Teachers of 

English on Entrance Requirements, School Review, Dec, 

1908, pp. 646-659. 
Scott, F., What the West Wants in Preparatory English, 

School Review, Jan., 1909, pp. 10 fF. 

F. No Intrusion of Foreign Purpose into Primary Needs 
OF English Course. 

Teaching the method of interpretation. 

Develop a regular method of conducting class work with freedom 
in modifications. 

Division of work to be both practical and scientific. 

Distinction between reading and study tests. 

Technical difficulties. 

Literature as Knowledge, as Science, as Art. 

Technical grammar : Present attitude toward study of grammar. 

Use of excellent translations from the classics for content. 

What place shall be assigned to a study of history of English 
literature in the high school ? 

English applied to work in other subjects, e.g. history, science, 
mathematics. 

References : 

On Translation of Classics, Classical Weekly, March 27, 1909, 

pp. 161 fF. 
Lehman, Rud. Methods of Interpretation, Monatschrift fiir 

hohere Schulen, VI, 1907, pp. 656 ff. 
Chubb, P., Teaching of English, pp. 322 fF. 
Jespersen, Modern English Grammar, School Review, Oct., 1910. 



APPENDIX 275 

G. Composition. 

Literary topics or everyday subjects ? 

Conflict of tendencies. 

How can its place be maintained in the curriculum ? 

Statement of composition topics. 

Work of correction, of discussion. 

Influence of school on imagination. 

Mechanical precision. 

Devices of clever teachers. 

Concentric idea in composition as against consecutive order of 
narrative, descriptive, argumentative writing. 

Relation between oral and written speech. 

Is a special vocabulary called for in written composition ? 

Composition method in German schools ; is it correct or repre- 
hensible ? 

Present attitude of German teachers. 

References : 

Mead, Conflicting ideals in Teaching English, Educational Re- 
view, March, 1903. 

Chubb, P., Teachiftg of English, pp. 322 fF. 

Colvin and Meyer, Imaginative Elements in the Work of School 
children. Pedagogical Seminary, vol. 33, 1906, pp. 84-93. 

Denney, J- V., Contributions to Rhetorical Theory (two problems 
of composition teaching) . 

Thurber, Saml., Five Axioms of Composition Teaching, School 
Review, 1897, pp. 7-17. 

Preliminary Report on English Composition Teaching, Bulletin 
of Illinois Association of Teachers of English, III, No. 7. 

II. HISTORY 

A. History of History Teaching. 

Former neglect of history in the schools ; its probable causes. 
What do the curricula show ? 



276 APPENDIX 

Appreciation of its educational value in America and in Europe. 

History and literature together the core of a high school course. 

History report in Report of Committee of Ten. 

Report of History Committee of Seven. 

The attitude of the American Historical Association. 

Result of detailed investigations of history-teaching. 

References : 

Bourne, Teaching of History and Civics. 

Adams, H. B., History of Teaching of History in U.S., Bureau 

of Education, Washington, 1887. 
White, Andrew D., Autobiography, Vol. I. 
Hall, G. Stanley, and others, Methods of Teaching History 

(Heath & Co.). 
Cheyney, What is History f in History Teachers' Magazine, 

Dec, 1910, pp. 75 ff. 
Langlois and Seignobos, Introduction to Study of History. 
Salmon, Lucy M., Principles in Teaching History, First Year- 

Book, National Society for Scientific Study of Education, 1902. 
Droysen, Outlines of Principles of History, translated by E. B. 

Andrews, 1897. 
McMurry, F., Concentration, in First Herbart Yearbook, pp. 61, 

64. 
A History Syllabus for Secondary Schools (D. C. Heath & 

Co.), a [practical elaboration of Report of Committee of 

Seven. 
Are Modifications of the Report of Committee of Seven desirable .'' 

N. E. History Teachers' Assn., April, 1908. 
Influence of Report of Cojnmittee of Seven, Educational Review, 

April, 1909, pp. 331-341- 
Proceedings of North Central History Teachers' Assn., 1908, 

paper by Prof. West, pp. 12-20. 

B. What Knowledge of History should Precede the High 
School Period ? 

The varieties of history teaching in the elementary schools. 
The problem of history in the elementary schools. 



APPENDIX 277 

The concentric scheme ; the part of the history teacher. 
The value of a uniform course. 

Three stages ; recognition of facts, interpretation, compre- 
hension. 

References : 

Johnson, Henry, History in the Elementary School, Teachers 

College Record, Nov., 1908. 
McMurry, Chas. A., Special Method in History. 
Doub, W. C, Topical Discussion of American History, Teachers 

Manual (Whitaker, San Francisco) . 
Atkinson, i^lice M., European Beginnings of American History, 

Ginn & Co., 1912. 
The Study of History in the Elementary Schools, Report of Com- 
mittee of Eight to the American Historical Assn. Chas. 

Scribner's Sons, 1909. 
Mace, W. H., Method i7i History, chaps, on the " Elementary 

Phases of History Teaching," pp. 255-311. 
Report of History Committee of Seven, Appendix by Miss 

Salmon, pp. 159 fF. 

C. The Place of History in the Secondary Curricula. 

The proper aim of history teaching in secondary schools ; its 
scope and the methods to be applied. 

A preliminary course in primitive history. 

Substance and form ; principles of selection in history teaching. 

What are to be considered the essentials and the nonessentials ? 
Institutions, constitutional problems. 

References : 

Robinson, James H. Mediaeval and Modern History in the 
High School, Fifth Herbart Yearbook, pp. 42 fF. 

American Historical Review, vol. 7, p. 426. 

Hall, G. Stanley, The Pedagogy of History, in Pedagogical 
Seminary, XII, pp. 339 IF. 

Burstall, Sarah, Impressions of American Education, 1908, 
chapter on Method. 



278 APPENDIX 

D. Specialization or Breadth of Information in the High 
School Stage. 

The source-method, the intensive study of a period ; how to 
apply them. 

Effect on the mind of the student. 

Patriotism and prejudice. 

Sequence in study, and distribution as to time (number of years 
and of recitations per week) . 

Facts versus motives and inferences ; memorizing. 

Textbooks — their relation to class work. 

Brief or elaborate textbooks ? Supplementary reading. 

The teacher — his preparation, his qualifications ; the art of 
narration in history. 

The German teacher of history. 

Recent changes in the methods of tlie French schools. 

How to study and teach history. 

Methods of conducting class exercises in history. 

Correlation of history with geography and literature. 

Aids to historical study, visual and imaginative ; documents, 
collections, etc. General library facilities. 

References : 

Bourne, Teaching of History, chap. 2 (on source material). 

Historical Reprints, Univ. of Penn. 

Seignobos, Ch., DHistoire dans Venseignement secondaire, 

Armand Colin, Paris, 1906. 
De Garmo, Interest and Education, pp. 1 50 ff. 
Freeman, Historical Geography. 

Bingham, Geographical Influences in American History. 
Semple, American History and its Geographic Conditions. 
Spencer, Herbert, Descriptive Sociology, Part I, English History, 

by James Collier (D. Appleton & Co). 
Robinson, J. H., Introduction to the History of Western Europe, 

with 2 vols, of readings. 
Matthias, Praktische Padagogik, pp. 39 and 45 (ist edition). 



APPENDIX 279 

Smith, Goldwin, Is History a Science? Amer. Historical 
Review, April, 1905. 

Illustrative Material for Greek and Roman History, Teachers 
Bulletin, Univ. of Cincinnati, Dec, 1905. 

Salmon, Lucy, The Historical Museum, Educational Review, 
Feb., 1911. 

For History in German and French Schools, see Bibliography in 
Bourne, chap. 3. 

Lloyd, J. E., History in Spencer, ^z>«i' and Practice of Teach- 
ing (Cambridge, 1903), pp. 141-155. 

Numerous articles in History Teachers' Magazine, Germantown, 
Pa., 1910, 1911, and 1912. 

E. Effect of College Entrance Examinations on His- 
tory Teaching. 

Types of examination questions, sound and unsound. 

The topical method of study ; its value ; written exposition. 

Large topics ; summaries; comparative reviews. 

A needed modification of the recommendations of Committee of 
Seven. 

Distribution of material through high school course ; the value 
of a continuous history course. 

Modifications of present courses. 

References : 

On comprehensive topics ; Lehrproben und Lehrgange, Heft. 98, 

(1909), pp. 70-78. 
Possible Modifications of the Secondary School Courses in Sixth 

Annual Convention of History Teachers of the Middle States 

and Maryland, 1908. 



28o APPENDIX 

III. THE CLASSICS — LATIN AND GREEK 

A. The General Function of Language Teaching. 

Application to Latin. 

The prevailing estimate ot the humanities (England, Germany, 
France, America) — opinions of humanists and scientists. 

Mastery of the vernacular influenced by knowledge of foreign 
tongue. 

Latin versus modern languages. 

The various types of the cultivated man. 

References : 

Bennett and Bristol, T^e Teaching of Latin and Greek, pp. 1-49 

and bibliography to individual chapters. 
Dettweiler, P., Didaktik und Methodik des Lateinischen 

UnterricMs, Munich, 2d edit. 1906, pp. 10-19. 
Asquith, Right Hon. H. H., On Classical Culture, in Classical 

Weekly, Dec. 19, 1908, pp. 74-77. 
Bennett, Chas. E., An Ancient Schoolmaster"^ s Message, Classical 

Journal, vol. IV, Feb., 1909, pp. 149-164. 
Kelsey, F. W., Latin and Greek in American Education, The 

Macmillan Company, 191 1; besides Prof. Kelsey's papers 

those of Prof. Wenley, The Classics and the Elective System, 

pp. 283-302 and especially of Prof. Paul Shorey, The Case for 

the Classics, pp. 303-343 (reprinted in School Review, vol. 

18, Nov., 1910, p. 585). 
Symposium on the value of Humanistic, particularly classical 

studies, School Review, vol. 14, pp. 389-414 ; 15, pp. 409-434 ; 

16, pp. 370-390- 
Fitch, Lectures on Teaching, pp. 226 ff. 
Conradi, F., Latin in the High School, Pedagogical Seminary, 

1905, p. I. 
Bentley, Latin in Secondary Schools (in opposition) Pedagogical 

Seminary, 1901, pp. 395-411. 
Leygues, M., quoted in Gabriel Compayrd, Reform in Secondary 

Education in France, Educational Review, Feb., 1903, p. 142. 
Schopenhauer, A., Art of Literature, pp. 43-46. 



APPENDIX 281 

Ramsay, Efficiency in Education. 

Sadler, Sir Michael, The Unrest in Secondary Education^ in 
English Special Reports, vol. 9, p. 93. 

B. The Prevailing Length of the Latin Course. 

EfTorts to extend its duration. 

What facts do the secondary school statistics prove in regard 
to the popularity of Latin ? 

The course in the classics in European schools of various types ; 
views of Paulsen and others. 

The usual distribution of the Latin work in the high school course. 

What should be the aim of Latin teaching in the high school ? 

Recent tendencies and reforms in Germany. 

Shall Latin be retained as a characteristic of all high school work? 

What value attaches to one year of Latin, especially for English- 
speaking pupils ? 

Present time allotment for Latin with relation to the amount 
of work undertaken ; criticism. 

References : 

Smalley, Frank, Status of Classical Studies in Secondary Schools, 
Classical Journal, L, pp. 111-119. 

Report of Committee of Ten of the National Educational 
Association, 1903, p. 45, and pp. 60-75. 

Report of Committee of Twelve of the American Philological 
Assn., etc., 1899 (see Bennett, pp. 125-130). 

Reinhardt, K., Der altsprachliche Unterricht in dem Gymnasium 
nach detn Frankfurter Lehrplan. (Cf. for the Reform Move- 
ment the 2d edition of Dettweiler, pp. 256-266.) 

Waldeck, A., Praktische Anleitung zum. Unterricht in der 
lateinischen Grammatik nach den neuen Lehrplanen, Halle, 
1902. 

C. First-year Work in a Four-year Scheme of Latin. 

Prevalent methods ; textbooks. 
Aims and attainment. 



282 APPENDIX 

Character of class instruction. 

Desirable qualifications of teacher. 

Correlation of various stages of the work. 

Class preparation and home preparation. 

Acquisition of vocabulary ; theories. 

Proportion of oral and written work. 

A Ceesar vocabulary or a wider vocabulary ? 

Difficulties of first years study ; results ; skill in method ; train- 
ing in the art of study. 

Formal discipline versus content. 

Serviceable teaching devices. 

Significance of pronunciation, of Latin quantities, of concrete 
material. 

Introduction to tradition, thought, and life of the Roman people 
through the subject matter presented. 

Comparative study of elementary textbooks. 

Accuracy in forms is fiindamental need. 

Relative importance of translation from Latin and translation into 
Latin. 

Place of syntax in first year's work. 

One or several grammars ? 

The transition to connected reading. 

References : 

Bennett, The Teaching of Latin and Greek, pp. 50-110; 202- 

212. 
Monatschrift fiir hbhere Schulen, III, pp. 364 and 395 fF. 
Gurlitt, Lud., Lateinische Fib el fiir Seocta, Berlin, 1897. 
Thring, Thinking in Shape, see National Education, a SympO' 

sium, London, 1 901, pp. 115, 116. 
D'Ooge, Benj., First Year Latin, in School Review, Sept., 1902, 

pp. 532-548. 
Munch, Wilhelm, Geist des Lehramts, pp. 453 flf. (ist edit.). 
Lehrproben und Lehrgdnge (Halle) No. 75, p. 8, and No. 91, 

p. I. 



APPENDIX 283 

D. The Second Year of Latin. 

The general arrangement in most high schools concentrates work 
on Caesar. 

Description of its character and its results. 

Is it possible to interpose some other Latin text before Cassar ? 
How would such an arrangement affect the work in Cassar ? 

Record of various attempts in modification of existing practice. 

The actual teaching of Caesar versus the ideal attainable. 

The aim in translation, in appreciation of content ; suggestions of 
practical aids to teaching ; the value of summaries, of class-prepara- 
tion of advance work. 

Extent of lesson : rate of advance. 

The use of illustrative material. 

Various editions and their distinguishing features. 

Value in the second year of translation into Latin. 

Our methods in Latin composition. 

Limitations ; oral and written work. 

Retroversion. 

Beginnings of sight reading. 

What does sight reading involve, how is it to be developed ? 

Its relation to class work. 

References : 

Kirtland, Recotistruction of the Latin Course, Educational Review, 

Dec, 1910, pp. 440 ff. 
Oral Work : Rouse, Classical Weekly, Oct. 31, 1908, p. 37. 
Modern Side Latin, School (London), Nov., 1906, p. 123. 
Carroll, M., The New Classical Philology, in Classical Weekly, 

March 20, 1909. 
Harwood, Aids in Teaching CcBsar, Classical Weekly, Jan. 23, 

1909. 
Allison, Preparation iti Class, Classical Journal (Chicago), Jan., 

1911, pp. 171 ff. 
Barss, John E., The Teaching of Latin Prose Composition, in 

Latin Leaflet, Dec. 3, 1906, pp. 1-5. 



284 APPENDIX 

Howard, F. H., Ccesar as a Textbook, in School Review, 1897, pp. 

561-587. Consult Bennett, pp. 150-151. 
Lodge, in Proceedings of the N. E. A., 1910, 493 ; cf. also p. 499. 

E. Sequence in Third and Fourth Year Work. 

Various theories and various practices. 

The effect of quantitative prescription on the school. 

Character of the examination test. 

What does the college expect of its entering students in Latin ? 

The cultural influences of the classics, how are they to be secured ? 

Points to be emphasized in the study of Cicero, Ovid, and Vergil. 

Reading versus translating. 

Effect of the departmental system on the teaching of the classics. 

The teaching of ancient history in its relation to the classics. 

The Realia (objects of ancient life, etc). 

References : 

Harris, Wm. T., Report of St. Louis Schools, 1872, on discussion 

of subject matter in classical study. 
The Saalburg Collection, vide Classical Weekly, Jan. 23, 1909. 
White, E. L., Classroom Comprehension of Cicero, Classical 

Weekly, November 9 and 16, 1907. On Translation tests, see 

Report of Committee on English in Report of Committee of 

Ten, section 7, on page 94. 
Sisson, Reading versus Translating, School Review, XV, pp. 

508 ff., XVI, 664 ff. 
For the aesthetics of translation, see examples in Lane's Latin 

Grammar, and Shorey, Paul, Discipline versus Dissipation, 

School Review, 1896, 217 ff. 

F. Greek. 

Influence of college action on Greek in the schools. 
Varying points of view with respect to time allotment. 
Distribution of work ; methods of procedure ; some interesting 
recent experiments in the teaching of Greek in Germany. 



APPENDIX 285 

Emphasis in Greek work. 
Technical Equipment of the Teacher. 

General relation of Latin and Greek instruction to the teaching 
of English. 

{a) for classical students. 

(Ji) for nonclassical students. 

References : 

Bristol, Geo. P., The Teaching of Greek in the Schools (in 
volume : Bennett and Bristol, The Teaching of Latin and 
Greek) ; fundamental and complete for English-speaking 
students. 

Burgess, I. B., Bibliography, in School Review, V, pp. 625-635. 

German books of reference: Dettweiler, P., Didaktik und Me- 
thodik des lateinischen und griechischen Unterrichts, part IV, 
pp. 1-93. 

Wilamowitz-Mollendorff, U. von., Der Unterricht im Grie- 
chischen, in Lexis, Die Reform des hoheren Schulwesens in 
Preussen, 1902, pp. 157-176. 

Programm zur Erinnerung an H. L. Ahrens, Hannover, 1882 
(beginning study of Greek with Homer). 

Agahd, Griechisches Elementarbuch aus Homer (Gottingen, 1904). 
Przygode und Engelmann, Griechischer Anfan^sunterricht im 
Anschluss an Xenophons Anabasis (Berlin, 1904), I and IL 

Lehrproben und Lehrgdnge, Halle, 36 : 14. 

Waldeck, A., Die griechische Grammatik nach den neuen Lehr- 
pldnen. 

Bruhn, E., Hilfsbuch fiir den Griechischen Unterricht nach dem 
Frankfurter Lehrplan (Berlin, 1903). 

Numerous articles in Monatschrift fur hohere Schulen. vols. 
I toX. 

IV. MODERN LANGUAGES — GERMAN AND FRENCH 

A. Various Purposes of Modern Language Teaching. 

Its place in the high school. 

Shall it be introduced into our elementary schools? 



286 APPENDIX 

Shall one or two modern languages be studied by high school 
pupils ? 

Character of prevailing modern language work in our high 
schools ; influence of colleges. 

Discussions on values. 

What lessons in regard to language teaching may European ex- 
perience of the last thirty years teach? 

References : 

English Special Reports on Educational Subjects, vol. i, pp. 397- 
400 ; vol. 2, pp. 648-679 ; vol. 3, papers by Ware, Brebner, 
Hausknecht ; vol 9, pp. 232-234. 

Spencer, F., Aims and Practice in Teaching, Cambridge, 1903, 
chap. Ill on French and German. 

Russell, James E., German Higher Schools, chap. 14, pp. 266- 
290. 

Colbeck, C, On the Teaching of Modern Languages in Theory 
and Practice, 1887 (Pitt Press). 

Vietor, W., Quousque tandem f Der Sprachunterricht muss 
umkehren (2d edition), Marburg, 1886. 

Storr, F., The Teaching of Modern Languages, in Barnett, 
Teaching and Organization, 1897, pp. 261-280. 

Hall, G. Stanley, Modern Languages, their Culture Value, Peda- 
gogical Seminary, XV, pp. 370-379. See Educational Review, 
Feb., 1905. 

Methods of Teaching Modern Languages, D. C. Heath & Co., 
1893. 

Rambeau, A., The Teaching of Modern Languages in the Ameri- 
can High School, Die Neueren Sprachen, vol. 13, No. 4, pp. 
193 ff. 

Altschul, A., Die Neueren Sprachen, vol. 14, pp. 405-418. 

B. Account of Present Tendencies in German and French 
Schools. 

The Reform Method ; the history of its struggles and its suc- 
cesses ; the leaders of the movement. 



APPEISTDIX 287 

The present status of modern language teaching in European 
schools. 

References : 

Compayrd, G., Reform in Secondary Education in France, Educa- 
tional Review, vol. 25, p. 139. 
Br^al, M., De Venseignement des langues vivantes, Paris, 1892. 
Sallwurk, E. v., Fiinf Kapitel vom Erlernen fremder Sprachen, 

Berlin, 1898. 
Lacombe, Paul, Esquisse d'^un Enseignement bast sur la Psy- 

chologie, Paris, A. Colin, 1899. 
Schiller, H., Handbuch der Padagogik (2d edition), Leipzig, 

1890, pp. 505-535. 
MUnch, W., Didaktik und Methodik des franzosischen Unter- 

richts (2d edition), Munich, 1902. 
Glauning, Fr., Didaktik und Methodik des englischen Unterrichts^ 

(2nd edition), Munich, 1903. 
Mangold, W., Der Unterricht im Franzosischen und Englischen, 

pp. 191-226 of Lexis, Die Reform des hoheren Schulivesens in 

Preussen, Halle, 1902. 
Victor's " Neuere Sprach en," a journal devoted to modern language 

teaching, vols. I to XIV, passim. 
Lehrproben und Lehrgdnge, Halle, Heft. 98, pp. 86-96, and 

numerous articles in its several issues, as well as in Monat- 

schrift fur hohere Schulen, vols. I-VIII. 
Sachs, J., The German Reform Method and its adaptability to 

American conditions. Publications of New England Modern 

Language Association, I, 30 (Ginn & Co). 

C. How DOES Modern Language Teaching Differ in Aims 
AND Methods from the Teaching of the Classics? 

Its relation to the teaching of the vernacular. 
Phonetics. 

Pronunciation ; acquisition of vocabulary ; idiomatic ability ; oral 
and written expression. 

Speaking exercises and the system of developing them. 

The question of translation from and into the foreign language. 



288 APPENDIX 

References : 

Jespersen, Otto, How to Teach a Foreign Language, Macmillan, 

1904. 
Breul, Karl, The Teaching of Modern Foreign Languages and the 

Training of Teachers, Cambridge, 1906. 
Widgery, W. H., The Teaching of Languages in Schools, 2d 

edition, London, 1903. 
Grandgent, C . , /$■ Modern Language Teaching a Failure f School 

Review, XV, pp. 513 ff. 
Walter, Max, Aneignung und Verarbeitung des Wortschatzes im 

Neusprachlichen Unterricht, in Die Neueren Sprachen, Jan., 

1907, pp. 513-537- 
Walter, Max, Englisch nach dem Frankfurter Reform-plan- 
Paulsen, Fr., Humanistic against Realistic Education, Educational 

Review, Jan., 1907. 
Skinner, M. M., Some Practical Hints for Teaching Students how 

to read German, School Review, Oct., 1909, 529-541. 

D. The Object Lesson as an Aid to Modern Language 
Teaching. 

Material aids to teaching. 

Grammars. 

Textbooks : the principles of selection (length, ease or difficulty, 
appropriateness) ; the question of editing, of annotation. 

The relation between literary material and the life of the foreign 
people. 

References : 

Brebner, M., The Method of Teaching Modern Languages in 

Germany, London, 1898. 
Passy, v.. La Methode directe dans Venseignement des langues 

vivantes, Paris, 1899. 
Roden, A. v.. Die Verwendung von Bildern zu franzosischen 

und englischen Sprechubungen, Marburg, 1898. 
Bagster-Collins, German in Secondary Schools, pp. 77-80. 
Konversations-Unterricht nach HolzeVs Bildertafeln (German, 

French, English, etc.), Giessen, Erail Roth. 



APPENDIX 289 

Rippmann, W., German Picture Vocabulary, London, Dent, 
1906. 

See various articles by Rippmann and others in The School- 
World, 1899. 

Collard, F., Methodologie de Venseignement moyejt, Bruxelles, 
1903, Part II, chap. 4, pp. 342-381. 

Schweitzer-Simmonot, Methode directe pour Venseignement de 
Vallemand (Paris, A. Colin) . 

Starr, W. Cutting, The Teaching of German Literature in High 
Schools and Academies, School Review, April, 1911, 217 fF. 

E. The Native and the Foreign Teacher ; Prerequisites of 

Success. 

Preparation and attainments. 

Study of conditions in America and abroad. 

Relation of college and university to the preparation of the 
teacher. 

The possibilities of a teaching career in modern language work. 

The pedagogy of modern language teaching in its relation to 
general pedagogy. 

References : 

Breul, Karl, The Teaching of Modern Foreign Languages and 

the Training of Teachers, pp. 78-101. 
Handbuch fur Lehrer hoherer Schulen, Teubner, 1906, pp. 

323-394- 
Waetzoldt, S., Die Aufgabe des neusprachlichen Unterrichts und 

die Vorbildung der Lehrer, Berlin, 1892. 
English Special Reports on Educational Subjects, vol. 3, No. 10 

(Fabian Ware), pp. SI9-553. 
Babbitt, E. H., Preparation of Modern Language Teachers for 

American Institutions, Transactions of the Modern Language 

Assn., Baltimore, New series. Vol. I. 
Gouin, F., The Art of Teaching and Studying Languages, 3d 

edition, 1892 (Scribner's). 
Langlois, V., La preparation professionelle h Venseignement 

secondaire. Paris, 1902. 



INDEX 



Academic TRAmiNG, 5, 264. 
Academies, endowed, 172. 
Addams, Jane, 150, 186. 
Adjustment in the stages of work, 28. 
Adjustment of educational conditions, 

220. 
Administrative duties, 151. 
Adolescence, 147, 181. 
Aim, definite, in class exercise, 50. 
Answer, nature and form of, 142. 
Antagonism, between school types in 

England, 173. 
Armstrong, J. E., 185, 189. 
Armstrong, Professor, 135 S., 180. 
Arrest in mental interest, 239. 
Art of teaching, 140. 
Assignment to introductory work, 26. 
Atkinson, F., 4. 

Attendance, hours of daily school, 148. 
Attention, concentrated, 146. 
Attention, divided, 68. 

Bagley, 153. 

Bascom, 10, 198. 

Baumann, J., 7, 8, 

Benson, A. C, 71. 

Betts, 133, 141. 

Bremen teachers, 83. 

Briggs, Le Baron, 197. 

Brinkmann, 67. 

Brown, E. E., 85, 187, 201. 

Brown, J. F., 5, 22, 40, 85, 188. 

Burstall, S., 63, 100, 180. 

Butler, N. M., 6, 77, 96, 136, 147. 

Caufornia, s. 

Canfield, 136. 

Carnegie Foimdation, 43, 90. 

Chabot, Ch., 42. 



Character building, 161. 

Character plus scholarship, 164. 

Civic efficiency, 237. 

Class book in German schools, 29. 

Class exercise as an ideal, 144, 147. 

Class Management, 59. 

Class periods, number per week, 148. 

Classroom exercises, 132, 145. 

Cleveland plan of segregation, 189. 

Coeducational school, the dominating 

type, 183, 186 fit. 
College, a training school for teachers, 

4,6. 
College preparatory course, 86, 209. 
College requirements, 205. 
College sections for teachers, 7. 
College standards, 6. 
Colvin, Stephen S., 66, 
Compayre, 103. 
Completing a subject, 128. 
Concentration and intensity, 171. 
Concentration of schools, 109. 
Concreteness in instruction, 140. 
Conditioned students, 204. 
Conference of superintendents, 207. 
Congenial and uncongenial tasks, 62. 
Continuation schools, 230-241. 
Continuity, 104, 129, 239. 
Cooperation in classroom, 137. 
Cooperation of teachers, 27. 
Correlation in private schools, 158. 
Correlation, natural and artificial, 145. 
Couyba, 100, 103. 
Criticism, 4T, 54 ff., 263. 
Croiset, 74. 
Cultural aim of schools in Germany, 

etc., 102. 
Cultural tendency, 223. 
Cultured man, definition, 102. 



291 



292 



INDEX 



Danish peasant high schools, 240. 

Davis, C. O., 210. 

Deahl, J., 77. 

Definiteness and indefiniteness of aim 
in school systems, 114. 

De Garmo, 141, 185, 192. 

Departmental system, 107. 

Dettweiler, 118. 

Dewey, John, 68. 

Didactic skill, 146. 

Differentiation in method of instruc- 
tion, 165. 

Dilettantism in school policy, 194. 

Dilettantism in study, 149, 171. 

Disciplinary power in different sub- 
jects, 197. 

Discipline and instruction, 96, 197. 

Discipline, direct and indirect, 62, 65. 

Distribution of studies, 126 ff. 

Dutton and Snedden, 177, 185. 

Economy of effectiveness, 146, 167. 

Economy in time feasible in private 
schools, 167 ff. 

Education, influence on conduct, 161, 
254- 

Educational expert, function, 242 ff. 

Educational experts, 194, 207 ff. 

EflSciency, mental comparison, 170. 

Effort, undirected, 135. 

Electives, 195 ff. 

Eliot, 170, 177, 196. 

Endowment funds, 154. 

Englewood, 189. 

English Special Reports, 180, 232, 235, 
241. 

Enlargement of intellectual sjmipathy, 
227. 

Enrichment of elementary scheme, 106. 

Essentials of secondary school pro- 
gram, 126, 260. 

Ethics, practical, 74. 

Evaluation of subjects, 224 ff. 

Evening schools, 233. 

Examination by instalment, 129. 

Examinations, 254. 

Exchange teachers, 42. 

Expenditures for buildings, 176. 

Experimentation in schools, 194, 259. 



Expression, 116, 125. 
Extraneous activities, 149. 
Extravagance of four-year high school, 
108. 

Family life, weakness of, 149. 
Farrington, 74, 98. 
Faunce, 79, 150. 
Feminization of schools, 184. 
Financial aspect of high school ques- 
tion, public and private, 174 ff. 
Findlay, 57. 

First-year work, importance, 23 ff. 
Fiske, John, 147. 
Flexibility, 145. 

Flexibility of private schools, 157, 174. 
Foreign language study, 120. 
Foster, William T., 196. 
France, moral instruction, 73. 
France, public instruction, 98, 206. 
Frick, 38, 143. 
Fries, 35, 38, 40. 

Gansberg, F., 83. 
General continuation schools, 236. 
German gjTnnasial seminary, 20, 35 ff. 
German secondary schools, 165, 200, 

216 ff. 
German teacher, 60. 
Germany, assignment of teachers, 26. 
Girls' schools, teachers, 183. 
Gilbert, 78. 
Goethe, 11. 

Grouping of subjects, 12, 193. 
Group system, 195, 199. 
Growth in knowledge, 14. 
Guidance by experienced teacher, 19, 

21, 135. 

Hadley, 196. 

Halle, 37. 

Hanus, 113. 

Harris, William T., iii, 136, 158, 

199. 
Harrison, Caskie, 198. 
Hartog, 117. 
Harvard, new requirements, 89, 172, 

205. 
Henderson, 133, 138. 



INDEX 



293 



High school, length of daily session, 
148. 

High school, parallel courses, 201. 

Higher elementary school (England), 
218. 

Hildebrand, R., iiS. 

History, place in curriculum, 122. 

Hollister, H. A., 80, 185. 

Home, absence of authority, 163. 

Home and school, 72, i6o S. 

Home preparation, 131, 134, 136. 

Home work, 147. 

Humanistic ideal, France and Ger- 
many, 103. 

Idleness, engrossing, 186. 
Inbreeding of teachers, 258. 
Individuality, 108, 150, 160. 
IneflBciency, 97, 150, 171, 180. 
Inspection, 253. 
Intellectual growth, 48, 186. 
Intellectual stimulus, 227 ff. 
Intensive interest in a subject, due to 

what? 127. 
Interpretation, 119. 
Investigation, expert, 252. 

James, William, 77. 

Judgment, discriminating, 67. 

Junior and senior high schools, 109, 



Kelsey, 116. 
Kelvin, Lord, 192. 
Kerschensteiner, G., 124, 230. 

Lagakdelle, 97. 

Langlois, 35, 42. 

Language study, preponderance, 125. 

Laurie, S. S., 24. 

Lehman, Rud., 97, 118. 

Lehrplane und Lehraufgaben, 82, 10 1. 

Lehrproben imd Lehrgange, 30, 143. 

Length of school life, 256. 

Lesson hearing, 135. 

Lexis, 37, 100. 

Liberal education, 100. 

Logic in Mathematics, 123. 

Logical sequence, 199. 



Loos, 65. 
Luckey, 19. 

Magnus, Sir Philip, 188. 

Male teachers, 178, 190. 

Manual arts, 125, 213. 

Mark, H. T., 77, 108, 150. 

Martineau, Dr., 198. 

Mathematical course, 122 ff. 

Mathematical teaching, 47, 113. 

Matthias, A., 118, 143. 

McCrea, 8. 

McMurry, 30. 

Method, discussion of, 52. 

Methods of study, change, 105, 107, 

III, 164. 
Meumann, 134. 
Minimum requirements of admission, 

203. 
Mobility in classroom, 60. 
Model lessons, 29 ff. 
Model school, 54. 

Modern language teaching, 47, 121. 
Monatschrift fiir hohere Schulen, 20, 

97. 16s, 196. 
Moral education, 79 ff., 192. 
Moral instruction, 73 ff. 
Moral qualifications of teachers, 70 ff. 
Morality undeveloped, 150. 
Miinch, 134, 162. 

Munich continuation system, 237 ff. 
Myers, 76. 

Narrowing tendencies, 10. 

Needs, special, of a community, 257, 

Neff, 35- 

Nightingale, A. F., 85. 

Non-collegiate interests, 87, 210. 

Normal schools, 2, 3. 

Nucleus of secondary school work, 115, 

Observation of teaching, 51 ff- 
Oral expression, 119. 

Palmer, George H., 77. 
Parallel courses, 201. 
Parental neglect of duty, 161. 
Parents' attitude toward private 
schools, 160 ff. 



294 



INDEX 



Part-time instruction, 153. 

Paulsen, 42, 165. 

"Pedagogy, philosophic foundations 

of," 97. 
Periods, number per week allotted to 

one subject, 128. 
Perry, John, 47. 
Pettee, 113. 
Petzoldt, 108. 

Physical equipment of teacher, 60, 6r. 
Popular demands vague, 92. 
Practice teaching, 55, 57 ff. 
Preparation, daily, 44. 
Preparation for life, 92, 215, 222. 
Principal, breadth of view, 13, 159. 
Pritchett, 4, 43, 90, 112, 204, 234. 
Private school, basis of success, 182. 
Private schools, criticism, 156 ff., 163, 

173- 
Private schools, educational standards, 

156 ff., 163, 168. 
Private schools, relation to parents, 

157, 162, 168. 
Private schools, socially desirable, 155. 
Private schools, value of continuity, 

159, 164, 167, 169. 
Professional recognition, 17. 
Professional spirit, 16. 
Professional training of teachers, 17, 

34. ^ 

Program, weekly, 127, 150. 
Proletariat, intellectual, 97. 
Providence, R.I., 19. 
Prussia, 20, 202, 206, 231. 
Public high school, pupils, 172. 
Public high schools, teaching force, 

178 ff. 

Quality of teaching, 101 ff., 258. 
Quality rather than quantity, 151, 258. 
Questioning, art of, 141. 
Questioning, ideal character, 143. 

Range of teaching interests, ii ff . 
Readjustment of school course, 108. 
Realschulen of Germany, 201. 
Recitation, antiquated type, 146. 
Recitation, character, 131, 133, 137 ff. 
Recitation, conduct of a, 144 ff. 



Recitations, number per week, 130 ff. 

Reflection and trial, 39. 

Rein, 65, 99. 

Reinstein, 141. 

Relation of salaries to school income, 

175. 
Religious instruction, Germany, 82 ff. 
Remissness of parents, 161. 
Report Boston School Commission, 86. 
Report Commissioner Education, 24, 

86, 152, 179, 231. 
Report Committee of Fifteen, 49. 
Report Committee of Ten, 89, 114, 

224 ff. 
Reviews, 141. 
Routine, 46. 
Rugh, C. E., 192. 
Rule and exception, 32. 
Russel, J. E., 14. 

Sachs, J., 187. 

Sadler, Sir Michael, 10, 92, 94, 97, loi, 
117, 149, 170, 201, 215, 218, 221, 241, 
242-267. 

Salaries of teachers, 177, 261. 

Salmon, Lucy, 112. 

Schiller, Hermann, 38. 

Schmidt, F., 134. 

Scholastic attainment, 6, 164. 

School boards and their aims, 178. 

Schuyler, R. I., 17. 

Science teaching, method, 124. 

Secondary school autonomy, 88 ff., 91, 
205. 

Secondary school, historical develop- 
ment, 85. 

Secondary schools of Germany and 
France, 98 ff. 

Secondary teacher in Germany, 11. 

Segregation, partial or complete, 152. 

Self -consciousness in adolescents, 120. 

Self-government, 63 ff. 

Self-realization, 149. 

Shortage, 109. 

Six-year high school course, 106, 108 ff., 

113- 
Skill in presentation, 127. 
Smith, Anna T., 187. 
Smith, D. A., 47, 97, 122, 221, 228. 



INDEX 



295 



Snedden, D. S., 211, 215. 

Social atmosphere of private schools, 

Solidarity of first-year work, 24. 
Specialization in secondary schools, 9, 

265. 
Specialized vocational school, 236. 
Standards of scholarship, 41, 172, 185. 
Steinbart, 165. 
Stenography, 93, 227. 
Stevens, 143. 
Study periods, 152, 

Subjects of high school courses, 114 £f. 
Suggestions and recommendations for 

improvement, 249. 

Teacher — a learner, 14, 15, 43 ff. 
Teachers — effect of inexperience, 23. 
Teacher's individuality, 49, 226. 
Teacher's standard, 44, 146, 264 ff. 
Teachers' colleges and the schools, 18. 
Teachers for vocational schools, 213. 
Teachers' meetings, 15. 
Teaching, maximum number of periods, 

151- 
Teaching staS, 41, 178. 
Tenure of oflSce, superintendents, 205. 
Tenure of office, teachers, 178. 
Textbook, its place, xii, 33, 131 £f. 
Thorndike, E. L., 109. 
Thoroughness v. superficiality, no ff. 
Trades-union type of teacher, 17. 
Training, 197. 



Training college (England), 3. 

Training to judgment, 64, 95. 

Transition, elementary to secondary 
schools, 104, 106, 252. 

Types, different, of German secondary 
schools, 201. 

Types, differing, of instruction in ele- 
mentary and secondary schools, 104. 

Utilitarian tendencies, 192, 215 ff., 
261. 

Variety of subjects, 114. 
Vernacular, teaching of, 116 ff. 
Virility of teacher, 63, iii, 182. 
Vocational efficiency of high school, 

214. 
Vocational specialization, danger, 212. 
Vocational training, 189. 
Vocational v. liberal education, 211, 

223. 
Voss, 35. 

Ware, 170, 217. 

Wheeler, B. I., 150. 

Women teachers and adolescence, 181. 

Women teachers in high schools, 178 ff., 

190. 
Women teachers, their value, 183. 
Woodhull, J. F., 10. 

Young, J. W., 47. 



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